Experts Told Me Not to Find the Guy Who Falsely Uses My Home Address. I Did Anyway

For the last five years, since moving into a new home, I've been bedeviled by a personal mystery. Someone is using my address to hide from police and debt collectors.I know because I get his mail.I open envelopes with a sharp opener, and when his letters fall out, they always give me a fright. His name is Austin. My youngest son's name is Austin, too. I have to catch a breath when I realize the troubles in those envelopes are for the other Austin, not mine.The "other" is Austin G. I won't tell you his last name because I'm not interested in ruining his name on the Internet with this story. But the other week, when I got notice that Austin G. had defaulted on his student loans, my curiosity clicked. I wanted to find him and learn his story.My wife, Karen, pleaded with me not to do this. She imagined that he was some sort of hardened criminal who would come after me. My oldest son, Jonathan, agreed.But I had a different feeling. After all, I've followed him for the last five years, through all his traffic tickets in Westlake, Grapevine and Watauga; his driver's license suspensions; an arrest warrant for failure to appear; and those neglected student loans.Austin G. is kind of a mess.  Continue reading...