Name's The Same

An applicant came into our office who knew my assistant. I'll call him Billy Wilson (not his real name). My assistant, S., told me that she had known him for several years, had house sat for him, and that Billy was in school to get a law enforcement degree. S. said that Billy had worked for as a security guard. He sounded like a good candidate, but I had known someone by the name of Billy Wilson, who I would never hire for an opening. But because S. felt so strongly about him, I asked her to call him to get his birth date so I could have a background check done. He gave his birth date (I'll say in was 08/28/1967), and he came back to our office about half an hour later to make sure that I knew which Billy Wilson he was. When I saw S.'s friend, I realized it wasn't the same one I'd known and previously employed in another job. Confused eliminated.

However, I really should have looked Billy up in the State Courts website before sending his info to the pay background check site. I found a Billy Edward Wilson born in the same year as S.'s friend. He also had the same address as S.'s friend. The website showed he was still "on paper" (on parole), so I looked up his information in the States Corrections Department website. Where were 3 Billy Wilson's listed; two of them were Billy Edward Wilson born in 1967. The first one I looked at was the one I had known. The second was S.'s friend. He is on parole for felony theft, so I can't hire him because he is not bondable.

I wish this was an atypical situation.