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In which I get to play private detective
Apr. 21st, 2010 06:31 pm(note: all identifying information has been changed)
On Tuesday, I was tasked with finding contact information for Richard Q. Jones, given only the name and an online patent application from 1996 that his name appeared on.
The first thing I did was call the lawyers' office listed on the application. The relevant lawyer wasn't in; the receptionist took a message and promised to have him call me back. (NB: Two days later, he hasn't. No money in it, I suppose.)
I tried Googling on Richard Jones' name, with and without middle initial. I found several other patent applications, but the 1996 one was the most recent, which led me to wonder if he'd died in the meantime. Inventors don't usually stop inventing, do they?
I took another look at the patent application. The link I'd been given didn't have anything but Richard Jones' name, but there were a couple of links to related pages, and one of them had the applicant's address, which was in McKeesport, Pennsylvania. I used Google Street View to determine that said address was a house, not an office.
In the meantime, this entire search related to a real estate transaction, so I called the real estate agent involved. He pointed out that the transaction had taken place over 10 years ago, and there were unlikely to be any records still extant -- and while he'd been the agent for one end of the transaction, Richard Jones had acted on his own for the other end. So no luck there.
I went back to that Pennsylvania address and found a website that did reverse lookups, which told me that that address currently had a Dave Blake living there, but the lookup didn't provide a phone number. I want to DexOnline and searched for Dave Blake in Pennsylvania. It came up with two addresses -- the one in McKeesport that I already knew about (with no phone number) and another one in Pittsburgh that did have a phone number. I figured it was an unrelated guy of the same name, but I called the Pittsburgh number anyways. What I got, it turned out, was a very hard-of-hearing guy who was my Dave Blake's father. I explained a bit of the complicated situation, and he gave me Dave Blake's home and cell phone number.
About then, the real estate agent called me back. He hadn't been able to find anything useful from the transaction he'd been involved with, but given the Pennsylvania address that I'd given him, he'd found a quit-claim deed for that Pennsyvania address -- with both Jones' name and his wife's name on it. His wife's name was Mary Dunn. This was big, because he'd been single 10 years ago, so having a wife's name was a useful data point.
I called Dave Blake's cell, and he answered. I explained that I was trying to reach Richard Jones, and asked if he had any contact information. He agreed he was the right person in that he had indeed bought Richard Jones' house, but pointed out that his last contact had been over 10 years ago. He said he had a vague memory that Richard and Mary had been planning to move to Wyoming or Montana.
I went to Spokeo.com, a data aggregator site, and looked up instances of Richard Jones. That site gives names by state, so first I clicked on Wyoming. There was one Richard Q. Jones in Wyoming, but when I called the phone number, I got a mother who told me I had the wrong person. (This was the first time having the wife's name was very useful.) There were two Richard Q. Joneses in Montana, and the second of them listed a wife's name -- Mary. This had to be it!
There was a phone number listed (as well as an address), so I called the number. He was home, and confirmed that he was the right Richard Q. Jones, though he wasn't sure how he could help -- it had been over 10 years, after all (sense a theme here?).
I passed on the information, and went on to my next task.
I love the Internet.
On Tuesday, I was tasked with finding contact information for Richard Q. Jones, given only the name and an online patent application from 1996 that his name appeared on.
The first thing I did was call the lawyers' office listed on the application. The relevant lawyer wasn't in; the receptionist took a message and promised to have him call me back. (NB: Two days later, he hasn't. No money in it, I suppose.)
I tried Googling on Richard Jones' name, with and without middle initial. I found several other patent applications, but the 1996 one was the most recent, which led me to wonder if he'd died in the meantime. Inventors don't usually stop inventing, do they?
I took another look at the patent application. The link I'd been given didn't have anything but Richard Jones' name, but there were a couple of links to related pages, and one of them had the applicant's address, which was in McKeesport, Pennsylvania. I used Google Street View to determine that said address was a house, not an office.
In the meantime, this entire search related to a real estate transaction, so I called the real estate agent involved. He pointed out that the transaction had taken place over 10 years ago, and there were unlikely to be any records still extant -- and while he'd been the agent for one end of the transaction, Richard Jones had acted on his own for the other end. So no luck there.
I went back to that Pennsylvania address and found a website that did reverse lookups, which told me that that address currently had a Dave Blake living there, but the lookup didn't provide a phone number. I want to DexOnline and searched for Dave Blake in Pennsylvania. It came up with two addresses -- the one in McKeesport that I already knew about (with no phone number) and another one in Pittsburgh that did have a phone number. I figured it was an unrelated guy of the same name, but I called the Pittsburgh number anyways. What I got, it turned out, was a very hard-of-hearing guy who was my Dave Blake's father. I explained a bit of the complicated situation, and he gave me Dave Blake's home and cell phone number.
About then, the real estate agent called me back. He hadn't been able to find anything useful from the transaction he'd been involved with, but given the Pennsylvania address that I'd given him, he'd found a quit-claim deed for that Pennsyvania address -- with both Jones' name and his wife's name on it. His wife's name was Mary Dunn. This was big, because he'd been single 10 years ago, so having a wife's name was a useful data point.
I called Dave Blake's cell, and he answered. I explained that I was trying to reach Richard Jones, and asked if he had any contact information. He agreed he was the right person in that he had indeed bought Richard Jones' house, but pointed out that his last contact had been over 10 years ago. He said he had a vague memory that Richard and Mary had been planning to move to Wyoming or Montana.
I went to Spokeo.com, a data aggregator site, and looked up instances of Richard Jones. That site gives names by state, so first I clicked on Wyoming. There was one Richard Q. Jones in Wyoming, but when I called the phone number, I got a mother who told me I had the wrong person. (This was the first time having the wife's name was very useful.) There were two Richard Q. Joneses in Montana, and the second of them listed a wife's name -- Mary. This had to be it!
There was a phone number listed (as well as an address), so I called the number. He was home, and confirmed that he was the right Richard Q. Jones, though he wasn't sure how he could help -- it had been over 10 years, after all (sense a theme here?).
I passed on the information, and went on to my next task.
I love the Internet.
