This popped up today on my Facebook memories, from seven years ago today. Even then it was a look back. It refers to my time of working at TCI (Telecommunications, Inc. of Los Angeles County) the City of Industry (15255 Salt Lake Avenue). Traveling from Yosemite in September 25, 2016, I was back in the area to attend a security related meeting introducing industry vendors.
Oddly, after Aramark laid me off in July 2018, I ended up there again on September 19, 2018 for a nearby job interview at Southern California Edison (which was a waste of time). Then on October 6, 2020 and again on February 20, 2021, Knight brought me to the neighborhood.
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Musing of a security dweeb.
This area has history for me. Just down the road, in Diamond Bar, during the early 1980s, my father created the first Cable TV franchise in unincorporated Los Angeles County. He tried to get me to be the GM. I turned him down. A year later, and with a better offer, I left the Sheriff's Office to work for my dad. I spent much of the following year in the area helping to build the DB cable system. It was a challenge--and fun. I loved the Cable TV biz. Especially that era.
To be frank, actually two Franks--some 15 years later, now 20 years ago (April 1, 1996 to be exact), thanks to my cousin Frank making some introductions after my father's passing, and Frank Maldonado, the GM of TCI of Los Angeles County at the time, I started my new professional path in corporate security working at this office as their first ever Security Manager. Frank M. thought a guy with both a strong cable and law enforcement background was what was needed. If TCI doesn't sound familiar to you, that's a shame. What a dynamic company it was! Dreaming the future of media and its delivery, and then accomplishing it. No one thought video could be delivered digitally, but TCI did.
We hired a crew of Auditors and fumbled our way through building a loss prevention program from the ground up. Thanks to a lot of people, including HR wizard and my sister-friend Nadean Dickey (who set a high bar for me to measure other HR managers and directors with integrity and insight), we must have done some good. Two promotions and a move the the Bay Area resulted.
I was able to work cases I never could have as a Deputy. Countless theft of service and piracy cases resulting in millions of dollars in court ordered restitution (with an average 28% immediate pay rate), multimillions recovered in an internal theft case, installers and techs being shot at while on the poles while disconnecting people, fiber cuts, a joint investigation with the FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation Unit that included at least on murder, one suicide, and six simultaneous search warrants being served in four different states, plus all the normal day-to-day "security" stuff like deploying camera and alarm systems to 50+ cable stores in three states. And, getting to know awesome folks like Sean Duck.
A "Dotcom Layoff" allowed me to land in Yosemite, where I thought it would be a fun job until a found a real job. Yosemite sucked me in, like so many others. I quickly learned to love Yosemite and it's people.
As life does, it has brought me full circle back to this neighborhood for work. A Yosemite patrol car parked where it all started, some 20 years ago. And a fun few moments getting caught up with coworkers still here and getting a tour of the facility. And, my dad's Diamond Bar system is now part of this one. It might say Time Warner on the sign now and it was just purchased by Charter, but it's still TCI to me.
No matter what happens in the near or far future, life has been friken grand!
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