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Marie Cooley

Police: Woman Thinks She's Being Fired, Sabotages Boss

Employee Arrested, Accused Of Erasing Company's Computer Info

POSTED: 4:26 pm EST January 23, 2008
UPDATED: 6:31 pm EST January 23, 2008

A Jacksonville woman is facing charges after police say she sabotaged the business from which she thought she was being fired by erasing some important computer files.

With the stroke of a computer key and by pulling some important cables police said 41-year-old Marie Cooley nearly destroyed $2.5 million worth of computer files at a Southside architect company.

Investigators said Cooley thought she was being fired, so she deleted expensive drawings in an attempt to incapacitate her boss' computer system to get revenge.

"What we consider to be a disgruntled employee saw an ad in the paper, thought the ad was targeting her job, terminating her job. She decided to mess up everything for everybody," said Jacksonville Sheriff's Office spokesman Ken Jefferson. "She went into the server. She deleted all the files -- about seven years worth of files. She just sabotaged the entire business, thinking she was going to get axed."

However, the police report states Cooley was not going to be fired and that the ad she read was for another position.

Police said Cooley told investigators she went to work over the weekend when the business was closed to pick up her W-2 form. The police report said she became angry and started disconnecting internal power cables so the business would have to spend time troubleshooting.

They said she went over to the server and started deleting all the files on it.

"While she was there, she decided to be spiteful and go in and sabotage the records and she did a good job of that," Jefferson said.

Cooley was arrested and charged with damaging computer equipment. She was later released on bail.

The owner of the company told police he was able to trace the deed to Cooley because she was one of the only people with access to the computer files.

He said the company was able to recover the lost files and return to business as usual.

It was not immediately clear whether Cooley was terminated from the company. However, according to the police report, she told authorities she would never return to the business.

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