Beware the Day before the Ides of March!

Oy, what a day.  I avoid griping about work, but this is a dilly.

A teacher let my boss know that a lot of equipment and tools from a school shop were available.  Two employees went to the site and gathered everything they wanted together.  They took pictures, noted all equipment with property tags, and e-mailed the list and photos to my boss, who passed it on to the person offering the items.  My boss received a reply e-mail confirming that we were allowed to remove the items from the school and bring them back to our shop.

We spent the morning picking up the items and bringing them back to the shop.  We took a break for lunch then unloaded.  Right after this (I am not kidding), my boss called and said that we did not have approval to remove the items and that we had to return them to the school immediately, or the items would be reported as stolen.  We spent the rest of the afternoon -- and stayed late -- returning the items.

I have no idea who overrode the approval we received.  Most likely, it was someone with an office job.  After shlepping everything four times (loading, unloading, reloading, reunloading), all of us agree that, if someone says that we can have the items after all, we don't want them any more.