The Ben Identity

I got a phone call on Tuesday night from my dad. He was calling to relay a message from someone identifying himself as a welfare fraud investigator from Olmstead county (Rochester).

With my mind racing on what it could possibly be about, i called the number he had left. He said they were looking for me in Blue Earth County (Mankato) but they thought I had moved back home with my parents. He said that he had to serve me papers to appear in court in May, but didn't elaborate. He said he'd refer my paperwork back to his partner in Blue Earth County and I should hear back from him next week.
NEXT WEEK?
I got a random phone call out of the blue, saying i needed to appear in court for an ungiven reason. But I won't find out WHY until NEXT WEEK?
What was this about? Was my identity stolen? Did they get the wrong Ben Nelson? Helpless, I had to sit and wait......
Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep wondering what it could possibly be.
The next day I called the guy that I had talked to the day before to see if he would elaborate on what the summons was about. He was just as uninformative as the day prior.

Putting pieces together, I made the assumption that I was being summoned by Blue Earth County. So I called the Blue Earth County Attorneys office to see if I could get to the bottom of this. They said that they did have a affidavit for me to sign about a court case in which I was listed as a victim of a Mr Gleason. Talking with Lisa, the person assigned to the case, she asked me to send her pictures of the scars on my face. She also said the court date was in May, as referenced by the process server that I had talked to on Tuesday. But she said the Ben they were looking for was in California.
They obviously had the wrong guy. However, Lisa said that they had not sent out a summons for this case, so no one should have been looking for me. She also said that they don't use private investigators, so the person looking for me, wasn't from this case.

So I was back to square 1 with even more questions than answers. I decided to follow up with the Blue Earth County Sheriffs office to whom Lisa said was holding the affidavit for me (well the other Ben Nelson) to sign. According to the Sheriffs office, they had nothing for a Ben Nelson to sign and there was no summons for a Ben Nelson, directly contradicting the County Attorneys office.

Frustrated, I gave up and just decided to wait until next week, and be served the papers from the Blue Earth private investigator.

Before coming into work this evening, i received a phone call from the local process server that I wasn't expecting until next week. He wanted to meet me and give me paperwork for the exact case I talked with the Blue Earth County Attorneys office about. He was looking for a Benjamin Joesph Nelson born 2 years after me.

One kicker is that about 2 years ago I hired a Benjamin Joseph Nelson at FedEx that was 2 years younger than me. So not only was i mistaken for him, but our paths had crossed before.

Even though its been sorted out and I know I have nothing to worry about, I still have a ton of questions. Like how did the system fail so bad that talking to 3 different parties about the same case, none could come to a consensus. Why did someone contact my parents, Identifying himself as an Olmsted County Welfare Fraud investigator?

As frustrated as I am, I can't help but laugh when im reminded of Allen's line in The Hangover "Classic Mixup"

How close is too close?

Last night, for the second home game in a row, the Minnesota State Men's Basketball team lost a game in the closing seconds. For a team that has mostly dominated their NSIC competition, MSU has yet to show that they can hit that cold blooded shot as time expires, or make the big defensive stop when it counts.

The average margin of victory for MSU this season has been in the neighborhood of 20 points. But the last couple of home losses in close games is a concern as they enter the NCAA tournament next week.

Sunday the Mavericks will find out if they will host the regional tournament, or will hit the road in their pursuit of an NCAA DII Title. With other regional front runners Mesa State and Augustana also getting knocked out of the first round of their conference tournaments, my money is on MSU still hosting despite the loss.