Originally Posted by
MissJoeyDFW
This week when returning to DFW from Chihuahua Mexico I was stopped by Customs and asked if I had ever lived in California. I had to think for a moment as I was born in California but grew up in Oklahoma and now live in Texas. So I told him no, just Oklahoma and Texas. He looked at my passport again and something on the screen and then let me go. I am a little puzzled why I was asked this question. I do have a very common first and last name, think Mary Smith. Does anyone know why they would ask me if I had lived in California?
A few years ago I was sent to the Tulsa Airport police department for a security/background check as the company I worked for was located on the airport. The police officer asked me if I had ever lived in Houston, the answer was no. He then asked me to stand up and asked me my height. I guess he couldn't read my driver's license he had in front of him. I told him I am 5'6". He told me it's a good thing you aren't 5'10", there are warrants out for a woman with your same name. As I was leaving I asked him what my namesake had done, she was wanted for assault, battery, passing forged checks, oh yippy skippy.
I guess I thought with all the electronic systems they have now that identities wouldn't be confused just because the name is the same.
I suppose this experience would preclude wearing 4" stiletto heel shoes!
The reason they do not tell you that you are on the no fly list before arriving at the airport is because that would be doing you a service which is actually "for your convenience", rather than "for your convenience" to have nothing to do with your's but rather with theirs.
One of the posts suggested the value of having a unique name. Would Ben Laden meet your specification? But I understand from the 60 minutes story about the "no fly list" which aired about 6 months ago, that the name is not on the list anyway.