Saturday, July 3rd, I had just closed up shop for the weekend and was heading home when the phone rang. Seems this customer was locked out of his office about 1/2 mile down the road and needed in to get a contract he had to finish by Monday or loose the deal. He agreed to pay me what I wanted to open just one door so I ran down there. It was a 10 story office building and he had a suite on the 3rd floor in what they call executive suites, actually it's a suite that leases out single rooms to very small companies. He showed me his drivers license and a business card with his name and the address of the building as well as the suite number. Next he pulled a card from his wallet and swiped the reader to gain access to the lobby and showed me on the directory his company and suite number. I followed him, his wife, and his dog into the elevator and went up. He swiped his card on another door to get into the suite and walked about 10 feet to his office door and said that was the one he needed in. He even told me where several items were inside the office to verify it was his. The lock was a normal Corbin 6 pin mortise lock, loaded with mushrooms, of course. Ended up picking it the wrong way and used a rubber band to reverse and open. Everything inside was EXACTLY as he has said. I got paid by credit card and went on my way, thinking I had covered all the bases of checking ID and proof he was authentic.
Monday, July 12th, I got a registered letter from the building manager. Seems I "breeched the security" of his building and he wanted my gonads for his rear view mirror. I reviewed the letter with the owner of the shop and he agreed I was more then ample in checking the customer out before opening a thing. So he calls the building manager to find out what his problem was and to explain that the customer had more ID then most people and saw nothing wrong with what I did. He also told him that I've been in the business some 30 years and I'm the most "anal" person he's ever known about ID verification.
Seems the customer had been evicted the 2nd. Both the suite and building managers had failed to remove his access card from their systems and failed to post notice on the office door. So who really "breached" the security of the building?
Some days even doing it the right way isn't good enough.
Mr..bill