Well, I knew it was only a matter of time before my Google searches drew the attention of authorities. (Like the search I mentioned at the end of this post.) Earlier this week, my WiFi connection dropped and when I tried to reconnect, I had the following list of available networks:
The first two are mine, but the last one was quite unexpected. I have never seen it before, and I haven’t seen it since. (For those not from the US, “FBI” stands for “Federal Bureau of Investigation.” Intimidating, sure… but honestly, the IRS – Internal Revenue Service – scares me more!)
Normally, I’m a paranoid person, but this time, I opened my blinds and waved. I had a good laugh imagining the boredom of anyone assigned to watch us. They would need lots of Red Bull and doughnuts 🙂
Just a bit of mid-week silliness here. Thanks for stopping by!
JannaTWrites 
This is probably spam. Sometimes virus. Some may freeze your screen and many ask for money to fix. Never open. Spam immediately. If FBI wishes to talk to you they’ll be knocking at your door. Wise to have coffee and brownies ready.
I don’t really think too much of it – it was just available networks I could connect to… I never click on any except my own 🙂
One of our neighbors has named his wifi network close to that. We have boring ones on my street. They give you a laugh when you find a unique one.
We’ve never picked up an any neighbors’ signals here… but where we lived before, we were all boring – no fun names there 🙂 Glad you stopped by, Stacy!
Ha, my hubby thought it would be funny to name our home network that!
Apparently, this of naming was all over Facebook a few years ago (I wouldn’t know, because I don’t FB, and stay in my cave!) We didn’t do anything fun with our naming, Suzicate.
Ha, we didn’t either…all because I’m a party pooper!
We’ll just watch the naming from the sidelines, I guess 🙂
You are under my radar….
Well, as long as I’m under the radar, things are good 🙂
Wow – did anyone say “Federal Agents!” as they parallel parked at your curb:) That’s too funny. Im a huge NCIS fan – all reincarnations – but I hope that “Gibbs” would be more surreptitious about naming their WIFI in the surveillance van.
Funny thing is, I don’t know, Joanne! I can’t see the street clearly through the trees. I didn’t seriously think it was the FBI, but then the idea of ‘hiding in plain sight’ was intriguing 🙂
I don’t think the FBI or IRS would be so blatantly obvious. But it’s freaky when something like that pops up all of a sudden.
I don’t think so either, Timothy. I just thought it was funny because I’ve joked around about my questionable Google searches. (The only thing strange is that we picked up any other signal at all. In the 1.5 years we’ve lived here, the only one I’ve seen is an ‘extender’ with one signal bar. We’re rural and the houses are not close together.)
Back when we were homeschooling our daughter, I discovered that pretty much all lab equipment is illegal for general purchase because of the war on drugs. We’ll I kind of had to make my way around the laws and patronized a lot of questionable sites to get what we needed for science classes. I figured I had probably been put on a few of the “watch” lists, but so far the various FBI background checks I’ve had in recent years have come back clean. Whew!
I had no idea of such restrictions, but I guess it makes sense. (Though I’m sure it does little to curtail such activities… the ‘bad guys’ can be quite resourceful.) I’m glad you’re not on any naughty, I mean, FBI, list 🙂
It just makes you interesting! (Which of course, you are!)
Plus, what a story! 😉
Haha, thanks, Kir! Other than my Google searches, I’m quite boring 😛
I don’t believe that for one moment. 🙂
You’re too kind, Kir!
That would give me a good laugh too!
I thought it was odd when Husband named his wifi “Voyager” after the scientific space probe, but this one exposes a great sense of humour 🙂
It was amusing, Joanne – especially since we’ve never picked up a neighboring WIFI signal. Someone must have a mobile hotspot or something. I had a router name, but it was boring. However, when I botched the set up of a new one and had to pay a computer guy $125 to fix it, he kept the out-of-the-box name. Frankly, I’m afraid to change it in any way since we finally have all twelve devices hooked up to it successfully. (I wish that count was an exaggeration, but I’ve probably even overlooked a couple of devices!)
I know what you mean about not wanting to touch anything that is working properly.
All this tech stuff is magic to me and if anything goes even slightly off, I rely entirely on the 3 available levels of tech support (husband, son 1, son 2). Without them I’m screwed.
Haha, I’ve got levels growing into place (twelve-year-old is a pretty good techie in training… eight-year-old isn’t so much yet!) Two years ago, we got a receiver/dvd player with surround sound. Since me moved a year-and-a-half ago, the surround sound doesn’t work and there’s no audio for the DVD player. I have to watch DVDs on my laptop!
I also bypassed the DVD player a long time ago. I could never figure the damn thing out.
I bought an HDMI cable and hook my laptop up to the TV. Voila – instant big screen 🙂
So glad I’m not the only one, Joanne! As a kid, I remember laughing at my grandma because the microwave always baffled her. As I struggle with the receiver/dvd player, I can’t help but think it’s karma!
I don’t want to make you paranoid . . . but maybe the FBI’s conducting surveillance on the suspected [terrorist/ ax murderer/ Halloween slasher dasher] down the street. 😛
There’s a short story idea for you!
Haha! Maybe I will have to borrow that for a short story – I’ve got nothing so far this week and I really hoped to have one last creepy story for Halloween!
I have seen that several times when I’m a burger place in downtown Sacramento. Reading through the comments here I realize now that it likely wasn’t the FBI — I wondered why they would be so obvious about the name.
Some people do come up with funny WIFI names. I like the “Virus-Infected WIFI” one – great way to discourage piggy-backers 🙂 Thanks for reading and sharing your comment, Kingmidget!
I think they are spying on the Javelina’s to make sure that they find your garden. On the other hand, it could just be a nearby router or phone that someone named that. have you thought about getting a repeater to boost your signal? I know I start seeing some loss when I get to about half strength. Well anyways, thanks for the mystery of who is watching who. At least it wasn’t a clown offering free candy. Take care.
The clowns and free candy are Friday, Sean 🙂 It’s weird – I’ve checked several times over the past few days and haven’t seen the FBI one since. Glad I got the screen print when I did as proof! And the javelina… should’ve known they’d be involved…
If you were at our house, you’d connect to the Hadron Collider, thanks to Darth! 😀
That’s cool – I didn’t know what the Hadron Collider was and had to Google it. (Wonder what the FBI will make of that, haha!) Smart naming 🙂
Fall off the chair funny! Life is hilarious sometimes. A real howl-o-scene story
I’m glad you found it funny, too, Phil! So strange, but not in a lock-myself-in-the-house sort of way 🙂
I’m glad you didn’t let it scare you, and we are all getting a good laugh over it. Blessings to you, Janna…
Glad you found the humor in it, too, Carol Ann!
Janna, you are too funny! I can picture the FBI van just sitting outside your house. Watching. And waiting. For what? Who knows — but it seems like they’d have something better to do, don’t you think?!
Glad you stopped by and laughed along, Debbie! I have no idea what they’d be looking for, but I’m sure they’d be disappointed. “Ooh, I see something. Wait. Never mind. She’s watching Family Feud with her cats.”
Janna, I assure you there is nothing to fear. Most probably it is your association with me that has brought you to the FBI’s attention. They have been looking for me for several years now in regards to a misunderstanding. Nothing major. But I AM Italian, you know! So just go about your daily routine as usual. I might suggest that you stay away from those searches for awhile. You know the ones; garroting, poisoning, knives, firearms ballistics of all shapes and sizes. This will all blow over in a year or two!
I knew those photo/fiction team ups were a bad idea, Emilio. Still on for November?
Lay off the searches? Uh-oh. I guess I shouldn’t have searched for deadly substances that aren’t detected in autopsies…that’s another story!
LOL – that’s hilarious! 😀
🙂 It was a surprising find, Dianne!
That would be a great name for one’s network! Probably wouldn’t have to worry about anyone “borrowing” the wi-fi. Interesting you saw it after mentioning that in a post! LOL
I know I’d stay away from that network! I probably should be more careful with what I joke about here, Patti 🙂
Thanks for the chuckle!
Glad you liked the humor, Allen!
Thanks for making my day. That sure was funny.
Haha, glad you stopped by to laugh along…. and weeks later, I still haven’t seen that FBI network again (I check often!)