Published: February 02, 2008 09:08 pm         

We may not be anonymous in small towns but being known is a good thing

I grew up and lived in large cities until I was in my 30s and didn’t realize until I moved to a small town that I would lose my anonymity.

Now having lived in West Virginia for 36 years and working as a journalist in the region for nearly 30 of those years, I am not anonymous.

I’ve had occasion recently to realize that is a good thing.

There was a time when I would go to the grocery store or wander around town, not worrying about how I looked because nobody knew me anyway.

When I first realized that if I did that here, people I knew would see me, I became more careful about how I looked.

More recently I’ve become less concerned, realizing that I am who I am and many of you do know me and know that.

It’s really kind of nice to walk down the street or visit a shop or restaurant and have people say hello.

I can’t imagine trying to really get away with anything because small towns really don’t let you do that. But when you have a problem, people in our town offer help and support, too.

Some people know me only as the face on the column they may or may not read each Sunday, but there are others who know me as a member of their church congregation, a fellow club member, as a friend, as a committee member on a project, as a customer, as a neighbor or even as “that woman.”

I don’t think I have fully appreciated that until now.

I tend to live my life pretty much as an open book and, unfortunately, also tend to believe others do the same. Guess that makes me naive.

I’m always a little shocked to learn that so-and-so robbed a bank, beat his wife, was a chronic gambler or perhaps was a liar and a cheat.

I know that probably sounds silly coming from a woman of my age, who has covered a lot of police and crime as a journalist.

Criminal defendants would probably love to have me on a jury as I tend to want proof beyond any shadow of doubt that they are the perpetrators of the crime.

But because I have covered court cases and crimes throughout the years is exactly why I’ve never had to serve on a jury. Local attorneys pretty much dismissed me out of hand on the couple of occasions I was called.

I truly enjoy living in Keyser and I value the fact that people here have known me for many years.

That came to be very important to me last week when I discovered I had become a victim of identity theft.

Someone in Dayton, Ohio, apparently used my name and social security number to obtain natural gas service at a residence in that city for nearly a year, scamming the company out of several hundred dollars.

I called the company when I learned about the theft and after initially insisting that I must be the person who had the account, they were reasonably helpful in telling me what I need to do to fix the problem.

First file a police report here in my home town, said the customer service rep. It helps that my husband was a deputy sheriff for 21 years who retired in 2000.

It also helps that we have lived in the same house on Church Street for the last 16 plus years, because now I have to prove that.

The gas company then sent me seven pages of questions I must answer and have notarized and return along with other instructions. The document I must file a police report in the down where the theft occurred. I called the Dayton Police Department. It helps that I’ve never been in Dayton and don’t know anyone who lives in Dayton. The only people we know live near Canton, Ohio, and we haven’t seen them since before 2004.

The officer I spoke with gave me a report number to give to the gas company and told me the matter is really going to be investigated by the utility.

The questionnaire calls for all of my personal information including the fact that I use my full name on legal documents and abbreviated versions of it on other things.

It also asks how someone might have obtained my personal information to use without my knowledge or consent. I haven’t the slightest idea.

It asks if I’m willing to prosecute if they find the person responsible. You betcha. I sure don’t want them pulling the same thing on anyone else.

It is going to take a minimum of 30 days to get this straightened out and in the meantime I have to notify the credit bureaus to flag my account to prevent further use of my credit without my knowledge.

Contact Mona Ridder at mridder@times-news.com.