“This actually happened to me and an agent who worked for me at a previous company, and it is definitely a horror story.

I received a letter from a customer inquiring to land available down around the Chester area in Illinois. He wanted to know what land was available with worksheets and plat maps/aerial maps. He said that money was not a problem and could we please mail him these things.

I gave this to my agent and information was gathered up and was mailed back to this possible buyer at the P.O. box he listed. After a week, we received a letter back, except it wasn’t from the customer, it was from the warden of the prison this buyer was in and he informed us that we were not to send anymore maps and such to this person as it gave lots of views of all the land surrounding the prison, which was one of the worst places in the nation at one time.

We were horrified at what had taken place. Of course it also caused a lot of laughter to think of it, but the worse part was still to come. The agent working for us was married to the county states attorney at that time and she had to go home and tell him what we had done. He didn’t see the humor in any of it.

So be warned about inquiries from people who don’t give you a true address and they use a P.O. box and also you might want to consider the area their inquiring about!

Who would have thought about a prisoner using this means as way to check out his surroundings…. I hate to think that he could have used these items to plan a getaway or something!!!”