They were looking for someone at an address that didn’t exist, but when they finally told me who it was, I recognized the name as the previous tenant in my house, whose mail still comes here occasionally after more than a year and a half. I told them what I knew, but then they said something odd as they were writing down details in a notebook:
“And you would be Mr. Fear?”
Now until that point, I had not told them who I was. What’s going on here? They know who I am, but they are looking for someone else who they think lives here? I suppose they could have looked in my mailbox, which is 100 yards down my driveway. Is that standard FBI practice?
Should I be peering out from behind lowered blinds? Sanding off my fingerprints? Honest, the statute of limitations has run on most everything I have to worry about.
So I guess I am back in the database, and I have to go back to answering the phone with, “Robert S. Mueller is a motherfucker!”
Two FBI agents showed up at my company door one day. We had a very strict corporate policy of absolutely NO ONE in our offices besides employees and clients with appointments. Even family members of employees can’t get in. The company performed nutrition testing for food labeling, and other product testing, and confidentiality was a very big deal.
I called my boss and asked if I could send them packing – I soooo wanted to. She actually said “Let them in. I don’t know if we even have the right to keep them out.”
Idiot. Of course we did, and I told her so. But she repeated the order, and I lost my chance to stick it to the Man.
Odds are that they have access to a database or databases that are based on credit reports that help verify addresses. Their info could have shown you as being current at that address, but may not have shown actual dates that the prior tenant resided there. Alternatively, and perhaps more likely, since he/she is still getting mail at that address, a credit agency could very well still be reporting that address as current for the prior tenant. Either way, it’s not surprising that the FBI knew you resided there, but wasn’t sure about the status of the other individual.
Based on the thread title, I thought this was going to be more like what happened to my former roomates. When I was in the process of a background investigation to receive my security clearance, the FBI went to interview family, friends and neighbors. One day, I got voicemail from the husband of a couple from whom I used to sublease a room. He and his wife were very much modern hippies, and he left me kind of a hushed message asking if I had gotten into some kind of trouble. He said that some man had knocked on the door claiming he was with the FBI and wanting to talk to them about me, so they didn’t let him in.
The FBI spooked me once. Wanted to quiz me about a guy at work who skipped town. They weren’ saying why. I said sure, “where should I go?” and they gave me the office address. When I got there someone else was in charge and they found it suspicious that I didn’t want to meet at my house, like I was hiding him or something. I said, “sure, we can go to my house”, but that made them more annoyed. “We give the orders, not you!” Fine. Last time I try to help.
I had a kind of funny encounter with an FBI agent once.
To understand, you need to know the layout: in that town a short street comes off the main street. On one side of the short street as you head away from the main street there is 1) a colonial era house 2) the public library 3) a junior high school and after that the road ends with a bunch of playing fields and a parking lot. On the other side of the short road is 1) a police station 2) the town DPW/Garages. Along the main street in both directions from where this short street comes off is a bunch of small stores and service offices (lawyers, accountants, a realtor, etc.)
In short, the colonial house is entirely surrounded by businesses and public buildings.
I was volunteering at the circulation desk of the library when the FBI agent came in. He was overjoyed when I admitted I knew who, um, John Smith was. (John Smith being the current tenant of the colonial house.) The agent proceeded to ask me a zillion questions about John Smith – how his marriage was, did he drink, did he do drugs, did suspicious looking people visit his house, did he keep irregular hours…on and on and on. Five printed sheets worth of questions.
I had to keep saying, “I don’t know” and “not that I know of” and “there’s no point in asking me” because the only time I’d spoken to John Smith was when he came in to pay the overdue fine on a book one of his kids had lost track of. Nevermind. See, the agent’s job was to do a background check on this man, and part of it was to interview the neighbors and I was the closest thing to a neighbor he’d managed to find and so that part of his review was going to be entirely dependant on what I said and therefore I must answer every single question, even if it was with a ‘dunno.’
Living just outside Washington DC for 8 years we had the FBI at our door a number of times doing background checks on neighbors who were applying for FBI jobs… but one time they were looking for our neighbors, who had apparently skipped town in the middle of the night. It was very weird.
I wouldn’t be worried. If your address has come up in the course of an investigation, it’s only natural that they’ve checked the current ownership records of that property and come across your name.
Heck, I could get that information with just the address and a decent real estate agent.
Well, it’s not really surprising. After all, it’s been the settled policy of the United States of America since March 4, 1933 that you are the only thing that America has to fear. No wonder the FBI is concerned about you!
This is a common problem. I am trying to get my clearance renewed and it is taking much longer than it should. No one wants to talk to the investigator. They think I am in trouble. I had at least five people at work pull me to the side and whisper to me about this guy who came around asking questions.
The FBI doesn’t do this any more. An outside contractor does all the initial interviews and sends them forward. I’m sure at some time in the process the FBI reviews it. There was too big a backlog in clearances and the FBI isn’t big enough to keep up with it.
My father was a small-town cop for 30 years – hated working with the FBI. He said they were the most suspicious, paranoid assholes he’d ever met. Worst trouble I ever saw one of my brothers get into was when Pop was grousing about The Bureau being a bunch of self-serving buttheads and my brother popped off, “Gee, Pop, sounds like you’d fit right in.”
I’ve never dealt with the FBI, but I once had the DEA show up unannounced to my office when I was there alone after a miserably busy day with many problems I could not have anticipated. I had just thought “It’s 4:15. NOTHING else could POSSIBLY happen today” when the little twerp walked in.
I got in touch with my boss and he had to make an appointment like everyone else. Usually we just cooperate with local law enforcement, but the feds are something else indeed.
This was true at the time my clearance background was being done as well (sometime in 2001 or 2002). However, the “contractor” happened to be a former FBI agent, and he told me that most of the people he knew who handle the investigations worked for the bureau at some point.
The guy doing my investigation is in his mid twenties. I doubt he is a retired FBI agent.
Sorry that sounded a bit snarky. After 9/11 there was a huge surge in clearance requests. They have probably had to modify and expand the procedures since you did it.
