Saturday, 04 July 2009

  • Stalking: When Google and Facebook Doesn't Cut It

    Stalking isn't always as simple as Googling or searching on Facebook.

    The internet is so resourceful. If you're looking for information on someone, don't give up just because a simple Google search or Facebook search doesn't give you want you want.

    This girl left her wallet at a cafe. It basically only had her ID and a piece of paper with her nickname. I was with Jessica and we didn't want to leave it at the cafe because who knows what other people would do with it, and who knows if that girl would even think to look for it there.

    Googling her full name yielded nothing. Facebook, nothing. Myspace, nothing. Then I tried Facebook with her nickname, and that worked, but her whole profile was privatized. I was, however, able to see her networks, which was only her high school, and confirmed that the school is in the same city stated on her ID, so I messaged her, but I didn't stop there. I wanted to find her right away because she had just flown in from out of the state a day ago (her boarding ticket was in her wallet), so she definitely needs her ID back to fly back home after this long weekend.

    I googled her address on her ID, looking for a contact. It turned out that the house (a BIG house) was up for sale, but I thought, maybe it's an old listing? I searched whitepages.com with that address and found a phone number attached to it. I called it but the number had been disconnected, so that confirmed that they had moved.

    What now? I thought.

    *Light bulb*

    I started searching for family members of her's on the web, so instead of searching "full name + city", I searched "last name + city". I was able to find her mother, or at least I assumed she was her mother, and from some digging, I found out that they moved out of the state. Actually, I pretty much know their life story now. Ha! I found her mother's LinkedIn profile and other articles about her, but none had her contact. I found her mother's work number and dialed it even though it was just about midnight (Friday night/Saturday morning) already, and of course it went to a voicemail - her assistant's voicemail. I figured there was no point in leaving a voicemail since it probably wouldn't get checked until the weekend is over, and by then it would be too late because the girl needs to fly back home. I need to find her now!

    That's when I went back to whitepages.com. I now had a new name - the mother's name - and the new city that they lived in. It was past midnight and they were probably asleep, but a missing wallet is important, especially for a traveler, so I called anyway. It was her mother after all, and I'm guessing I woke her and her husband up because I talked to both of them on the phone.

    Turns out the girl is staying just a few minutes away from me.

    Happy 4th of July everyone! Stay safe!

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