by Jobs with Justice

My story, though not over, started March 27th, 2010. My fiancée and I wanted to go on vacation. She has friends and family in Canada and wanted to visit. I needed a passport, so I went down to the post office and submitted an application.  We were set to go on vacation at the end of April. I thought this was safe because it states on the application it takes roughly 30 days to process an application. Well, this vacation never happened.

Time has flown by, It is now July 19th, 2010 and I am still waiting for a passport. We had postponed our vacation until I received my passport.  . Weeks went by; I called every week to get an update status on where my passport application was. I was simply told, repeatedly, “it is in process. That’s all we can tell you”, until July 13th when the passport agency finally returned my calls.

I was informed the reason I have not received my passport was because they believe there is identity theft. They asked me to come in to the office at 230 S. Dearborn in Chicago. This sounds serious to me so without hesitation I requested time off work and went to their office on Friday. I asked for special agent Adam Russo, the person I have been speaking with on the phone about the situation. He greeted me with another special agent and took me upstairs, somewhere on the 20th floor. Walking what seemed to be endless, then, all the sudden we came to a secluded room off of nowhere. A place that seemed to me people do not return from. I started to get nervous.  I was asked to sit down and then they started questioning me, about my application, my past, and any possible relationship to this other person.

They asked me if I ever seen this other person before. I said no. They said he has my identity and proceeded to interrogate me on any possible relationship to him. I was asked if any time in my life I lived with anyone that could have taken my information. Well, that is certainly a possibility, I replied. But, I have never seen this person before, as they opened their file and showed me his picture.  He looked like one of those guys from the Bruce Willis movie, Die Hard, where the Swedish terrorists were taking over that building and Bruce Willis was taking them out one by one.

I became very concerned and interested in my stolen identity. I was concerned if this person has used my social security number, or any financial information. They claimed he is not using my social security or any other personal information except my birth name. I became suspicious, because it doesn’t seem like identity theft to me.  This guy only has my name. Moreover, my birth name.  Let me explain, as I explained it to the three special agents. I was born under the name Gary Lee Mills. My mother left my real father and ran off with another man by the name of Eddie Dunn. I was only around five years old at that time.  Since then, I was enrolled in school and obtained my social security in my teens as Gary Lee Dunn. That is all I know or remember. I don’t even believe my mother and step father legally adopted my brother or myself. So, there would be no legal records of my name change.  So, that is why my birth certificate is Gary Lee Mills and the name my social security number was registered under is Gary Lee Dunn.  If only social security numbers were issued at birth in the 1960’s.

To further complicate matters, I joined the army in the 1970’s. I wasn’t old enough to join on my own. I was one year too young. But, at that time I was abandoned. I lived on the streets. Yes, my wonderful mother walked out on Eddie Dunn, she went to the dry cleaners and never came back home. Eddie Dunn flipped out and threatened to kill my brother and me if we didn’t leave. Well, we ran as we were being chased violently with a pole in his hand. He was a violent man, so we thought we would give him a couple days to cool off and then come back home. We went to stay at a home of a friend of my brothers in Elmwood Park Illinois. We went back on the third morning and the house was vacant. He left no food, he even took our clothes.  We lived in the house until some men walked in, asking for Eddie Dunn. My brother stood and said we don’t know where he is, look what he did to us. They looked around and left. We were on survival mode from there.  Things were different back then. Resources were not available like they are today, or we just didn’t know how to go about finding them. I essentially, lived on the streets until I met a young boy that took me home and his family let me live there through my teen years. I got into trouble and became a ward of the state.  I ran away and joined the army. The army added an additional year to my birth date so I could join without parental consent.

I explained this to the special agents from the department of state of diplomatic security service.Tto the special agents, this information only seemed to incriminate me more.  They asked to take my finger prints.  I said ok.  They called in another special agent in to guard me while they left to run my prints.  I tried to strike conversation with this special agent because I felt something bad was going on.  I wanted to know how this situation could be identity theft when the only thing we have in common is my birth name. I wanted to know if this guy did something he shouldn’t, would they come after me. The agents reply was possibly.  I wanted to know what was really going on.

I started to get really nervous, I was thinking what happens if they come back with something. I would simply disappear. I started to panic a bit.  I couldn’t get any straight answers and things just didn’t add up to me.  All they have is a guy with a passport that has my birth name, Gary Lee Mills.  Is there really a bad guy? Is this other guy doing something illegal?  Or are they simply giving me a hard time because of my life as a child? Who would figure that at age fifty this would come back to haunt me. I can understand the confusion, but, they should state the truth if that’s all it is. All I know is that there is no identity theft, and they are not being honest about what is truly happening.

I tried explaining to them that not everyone has a perfect family life and mine was just a little dysfunctional, but if wasn’t my fault. I never asked for any of this.  I suggested that they have all my information from my social security number to my finger prints, my birth certificate to my military experience and could run whatever they wanted on me to verify or qualify anything.  but they insist that I must continue to provide them information and documentation proving I am the real Gary Dunn, born under Gary Mills.

I told them I don’t have anything supporting my transition from Gary Mills to Gary Dunn. And my new father or should I say step father, did not legally adopt me.  Surprised at their response which special agent Adam Russo and his cohort said that “you may not ever get a passport”.  At this juncture, I am a little lost and concerned about the whole matter and haven’t a clue as what to do next. This is like a nightmare.  Am I really the person I thought I was for the past 50 years or am I someone else?

The problem I have is the United States Department of State Diplomatic Security has something up their sleeve and they are not being openly honest about it. Or are they just simply lazy and really mean ugly hearted souls.  As far as I know, Identity theft requires this other person to assume your identity, to actually use it or use the resources provided by it. All this guy has done is having my name, and not even the name I received my social security number under, my name from birth. I’m so confused.  The other problem that has me a bit concerned is how they held me suspect under watch and guard. I was treated as some type of fugitive terrorist bad guy, guilty by association or something.

I am 50 years old, born and raised in America. I am a self made person, obviously.  My life has been an adventure. I finally just want to start enjoying life a bit, travel, do things I’ve not had the opportunity to do before. But I can’t. It seems I am a prisoner to the walls of the United States, in the guise of this new national security program, of which I am held suspect of something.

I thought I would write and publish this article in hope to gain some attention and support from the news agencies or news groups, or maybe from a legal aspect. Such recognition or support from our media is typically the only way to resolve the really ridiculous situations involving are Government. I think that is really sad. It says it is too big for its own good. Maybe the easiest thing to do would be to change my name to my birth name? I am one hundred percent positively confident that I am not the only one in the United States with a story like mine.