{"id":3666,"date":"2023-04-23T00:05:45","date_gmt":"2023-04-23T04:05:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/?p=3666"},"modified":"2023-04-19T10:38:08","modified_gmt":"2023-04-19T14:38:08","slug":"but-it-was-such-a-friendly-place","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/?p=3666","title":{"rendered":"But it was such a friendly place…"},"content":{"rendered":"

But it was such a friendly place<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

I decided to visit a new town I\u2019d never been to. This seemed to be a very popular place to visit; at least, that\u2019s what the ads all said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It was a very friendly town; everyone I said \u201cHi\u201d to said \u201cHi\u201d back and shook my hand. You don\u2019t get those kinds of reactions where I live. If you are lucky, you get a nod acknowledging your existence.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There was a luncheonette in the center of Main Street, so I decided I\u2019d get a sandwich and something to drink. I approached the counter and ordered a tuna fish sandwich and a Coke. The server behind the counter was very friendly. She said, \u201cSure thing. You\u2019re new here, ain\u2019t ya.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I replied, \u201cYes. I\u2019m just visiting. I\u2019ve heard so much about this town that I had to come to see it for myself.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWell, pleased to meet ya,\u201d she said, shaking my hand.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That was odd. People in this town must like shaking hands.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It was a pretty good sandwich. I finished it and the Coke, and I asked for the check. She said, \u201cNo need for that, sugar. It\u2019s on the house.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The strange thing about that town was that no one asked me for any money in every store I went to – no matter what I purchased. I never had to take out my wallet.\u00a0 And there was all that shaking hands stuff.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I left the town late in the afternoon. It was quite a visit. Everything was wonderful, and everyone I interacted with was so friendly. On my way home, I decided to drop in at the bar in the next town. I went up to the bartender and ordered Jameson on ice. The bartender asked me for my ID.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I pulled out my wallet and handed him my driver\u2019s license. He looked at the license, then at me, and then back at the license again. He reached under the bar, where I thought he was getting a glass to pour my whiskey in, and\u00a0 I heard a clicking sound as he pushed a button.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The next thing I saw was a sheriff entering the bar and sitting on the stool beside me. The bartender left the two of us alone.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The sheriff looked at me and said, \u201cYou know that identity theft is a criminal offense. If you\u2019re convicted of identity theft, you could be fined almost $4,000, not to mention a number of years in jail.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhy are you telling me this? I\u2019m exactly who my driver\u2019s license says I am. Look at the picture.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFunny thing about pictures, they\u2019re so easy to alter to match someone else\u2019s appearances.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This was ridiculous. Why would they possibly think I was not who I said I was, which is exactly what I asked the sheriff.<\/span><\/p>\n

He said, \u201cWell, I really do want to believe you, but as you are the 5th person that I\u2019ve seen today with the same ID, I kind of question my own beliefs.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Now I was in shock, \u201cThe 5th person with the same ID? How is that possible?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He was very quick to answer. \u201cWell, you see, it\u2019s like this. We get a lot of identity theft in this part of town. You wouldn\u2019t have, by any chance, been to the next town over today?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYes,\u201d I said, \u201cI just came from there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI bet a whole bunch of people there shook your hand, didn\u2019t they?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAs a matter of fact, they did.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWell,\u201d he went on, \u201ca number of pickpockets inhabit that town. We try to warn people away from there, but they still keep going there. Half the people that shake your hand are friendly; the other half, well, they got a great scam going. You see, one person will shake your hand and pick your pocket, take your wallet, duplicate your ID and probably your credit cards, and even take some money. Then they pass your wallet off to someone else, and when they shake your hand, they slip it back into your pocket. You weren\u2019t curious why no one asked you to pay for anything?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was odd, but everyone was so friendly.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what they was a counting on. They don\u2019t want you reaching for a wallet that isn\u2019t there. That would raise suspicion. They take the fake IDs they made, go to other towns, and spend as much as they can get away with until you get back to your hometown and figure it out. You\u2019re just lucky you stopped here first.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSo what do I do now?\u201d I asked, getting rather anxious.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWell\u2026here\u2019s the deal, sonny. I really want to believe you are who you say you are. So if you can get me, let\u2019s say, $1,000 in cash, which would be about one-fourth of what you would have to pay if I arrest you and you are convicted, I\u2019ll see to it that those other four culprits get what\u2019s coming to them. When you get home, claim you lost your credit cards, and they\u2019ll be replaced. I\u2019ll make sure it doesn\u2019t happen again.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As scared as I was, that is exactly what I did. It wasn\u2019t until much later that I questioned how that sheriff happened to know how much money in cash I had in my wallet.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

But it was such a friendly place I decided to visit a new town I\u2019d never been to. This seemed to be a very popular place to visit; at least, that\u2019s what the ads all said.\u00a0 It was a very … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-story-writing"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3666"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3666\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3667,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3666\/revisions\/3667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}