In other news, while on my sickbed...

[arib]

Which was actually a couch, parked in front of the TV. That's not the important part.

This afternoon, the doorbell rang. It was an honest to goodness federal agent. A G-man, a fed, The Fuzz. Badge and credentials and everything.

Turns out one of my former upstairs neighbors is applying for a security clearance of some sort, and the guy was investigating her. He was trying to get in touch with her old housemates to interview them.

After he realized that the longest conversation I'd probably ever had with her was: "'Hi, I'm Ari, I just moved in downstairs.' 'Hi, I'm so-and-so, I'm on the second floor,'" he lost interest.

Still, interesting.

Comments

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

Actually, you told him a lot. Not speaking to neighbors is a downcheck in many security examinations. Shows anti-social tendencies and the like.

[arib.livejournal.com]

She moved out very shortly after I moved in, and I made sure to point that out to him.

[kayre]

I got one of those calls once.. someone had listed my husband on a security clearance application. I explained that he was at work, caller asked if by any chance I knew the applicant. Things got a little funny after I laughed and said she was hubby's ex girlfriend! But I was able to verify that she was in college for the relevant years, so all was well.

[sethg]

My favorite security-clearance story is about the MIT undergrad who got a phone call: "Hello, is this the Grand Master of the MIT Assassins' Guild? This is Agent So-and-So of the FBI..."

The student was tempted to reply "Sorry, we don't subcontract." But he didn't. It turned out that a (former?) Assassins' Guild member had applied for a security clearance and had listed the Grand Master as a reference.

[mbarr.livejournal.com]

from personal experiance, you might have actually done what he wanted, at least somewhat. They need to verify that people lived at certain places at certain times, going back like 6-8 years. It was a major pain for me in college ;-)

[debka-notion.livejournal.com]

I got a call along similar lines from a lady trying to make sure of a former roommate's reliability before hiring her for government work. She had, admittedly, at least warned me that this was likely to happen.

My mother got a rather harder one, as someone we knew from dancing put her down as a reference for his security check. We didn't know his So well, and his ex-wife and two kids had in fact returned to Russia, so the questions weren't Quite so cut-and-dry...

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

I've done that twice now, for the same friend (who works at a government contractor) -- once when she was first hired as a contractor and once when they upgraded her to a full employee and made her redo her whole job application.