Woman Deletes Employer's Data Thinking She was About to be Canned

Police say Marie Lupe Cooley, 41, of Jacksonville, Fla., really can jump to conclusions.

Earlier this week the woman saw a want ad in the local paper that she believed was for her replacement. The job description fit her job, and the contact was her boss.

Police say Cooley—believing she was going to be fired—decided to take revenge on her boss. She is charged with going to the architectural office where she worked and deleting $2.5 million worth of drawings and blueprints.

"She decided to mess up everything for everybody," Jacksonville Sheriff's Office spokesman Ken Jefferson told reporters. "She just sabotaged the entire business, thinking she was going to get axed."

The job opening was actually at her boss's wife's company.

Cooley has been charged with causing greater than $1,000 damage to computer files, a felony. She has been released on bail. And, of course, she is no longer employed.

Cooley's boss told local media that he has been able to recover all of the files by hiring an expensive data-recovery service.