Less than 10 feet from the Meal Ticket booth in the foyer of America’s Center, three people stand: two young, one old, each with official guest badges hanging from their necks.

They are selling the tickets required to eat at the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s 58th General Conference Session. “Whatever you want,” one said when asked what he had available. Either purchased legitimately from the booth, or perhaps artistic re-creations, the tickets sell for U.S. $5, and at half the retail price, they seem a bargain. 

“We regret to inform you that some individuals have been able to counterfeit meal tickets,” Ted N.C. Wilson, a vice president of the world church, told delegates during one business session, warning those who did buy the phony tickets will go hungry and leave disappointed.

Yes, bad things happen to good people. And the good people at the world church meetings became unwilling victims of a few “bad apples.”

The scalping of tickets may be a petty crime. But, theft is not.

At last count eight laptop computers along with other equipment have been stolen from display booths in the America’s Center exhibition hall. 

With more than half a million dollars worth of equipment housed in their booth, the church-owned television network, Hope Channel, was always concerned with security. Despite their vigilance, they have lost a laptop computer and a personal digital camera from the booth.

The laptop, which Chief Engineer Terry Cantrell described as “essential” for their productions, went missing early this week.

“We had to scramble to find a new computer with [that] specific software because we had a very specific use for it,” said Cantrell. The computer, as well as containing personal documents, was used to control the teleprompter used in the channel’s television productions.

“Fortunately we had a personal computer with similar software,” he said. “But it did mess up production a little because it took up valuable time.”

Exhibit manager Dean Rogers believes that such thefts are a “reality” when running these types of shows. “When you have this many people, including people off the street, you expect losses,” he said, adding, “We are working with security to prevent further losses.”

Sadly, those efforts have come too late for Canadian Adventist College. On Sunday, after the exhibit hall had closed for the day, Myla Ferrer, marketing officer for the college, not only packed up, but hid the booth’s laptop computer and data projector. “We put it away under the table, in a suitcase, and placed a chair in front of it,” she said.

The next morning the $7,000 worth of equipment was missing. The after-hours theft raises some serious questions, “but I want to think that is it not one of our church people,” said Ferrer.

“There is supposed to be adequate security,” said the college’s recruitment officer Tyler Coleman. “But with all the stuff that has gone missing, there has to be something wrong.”

It is a feeling that reverberates around the hall. Andrews University staff member, who also experienced the loss of a briefcase containing a laptop, checkbook, personal and business documents and a PDA, is disillusioned: “I see maybe two security guards pass us a day,” he said.

“They don’t know who is here officially or who is getting up to mischief,” the staffer, who asked not be named, added.

In response, world church headquarters security manager Eugene Reid said that while the thefts “saddened” him, “it is not something that is particularly unusual for the General Conference Sessions.”

While there have been instances of theft of small items, such as books and DVDs, Reid believes these are a result of cultural misunderstandings, saying, however, that “no reasonable person thinks a laptop is free for the taking.”

Working in conjunction with security hired by the event center, thefts, which for the last three days have occurred daily, have been reduced. “From a security standpoint,” Reid said, “we have had a good session.”

But while some items went missing, there was relief when one laptop computer deemed stolen later turned up hidden behind a pile of boxes, offering safe cover by a colleague who was last to leave the room. Some hopes remain that other missing items will return to their owners.

The show’s “lost and found” office was frequently contacted by those who wondered if their lost items had turned up. One can only imagine the big smile on the face of a woman whose wallet, containing U.S. $200 and her passport, was turned in to that office.

As the conference was about to close, some attendees and organizers questioned the sincerity of some of those attending. Whether they are desperate individuals off the street, disgruntled guests or wayward delegates, the criminal activities at this year’s session are, naturally, upsetting.

“It is unfortunate that at a meeting of this nature we have to worry about these things,” one attender said. “But it is a reminder that the devil is not happy and is trying to discourage us.”