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As well as this story turned out, surely it's a bad idea (assuming you're not an evil criminal) to just hand someone else's immigration documents to a stranger

As well as this story turned out, surely it's a bad idea (assuming you're not an evil criminal) to just hand someone else's immigration documents to a stranger to return? Sure, Exec vets its people, but it can't be perfect. What's wrong with either 1) doing it yourself after the meeting, or 2) turning it over to the police? Yes, the return will be delayed, but there's a significantly lower risk of personal info being compromised.

patio11 14y ago
As someone who has lost immigration documents before, I heartily approve of whichever method you choose to get them back to me, regardless of whether that is a) handing it over to a secretary, b) handing it over to the cops, or c) handing it over to the first foreigner you meet on the assumption that all foreigners probably know each other. That last one lead to a truly surreal telephone conversation with someone who, well, speaks Chinese a lot better than I do, but we did eventually get it sorted out.
- ahi 14y ago
  I don't know about Japan, but I suspect that in most major metropolitan areas in the US b) has roughly the same chance of success as dropping them out of an airplane.
  - waiwai933 14y ago
    I'd go to a smaller police station personally, but then I live in the suburbs, where we have police officers who do have the time to do the legwork and return it. I do agree, though, the police's reliability can get spotty at times.
civilian 14y ago
Don't trust police.
justindocanto 14y ago
What's better: A) Picking up and giving to EXEC when you don't have time to deal with it B) Leaving on the ground and letting possibly worse hands get a hold of it Although handling it himself could have been better (assuming he is more trustworthy then EXEC), It was a responsible choice.
- waiwai933 14y ago
  Well, my point was C) Pick it up and return it at some later point. Yes, A is much, much better than B, and the more responsible choice, but better != good.
rdl 14y ago
He's an existing customer of exec. If you'd trust them with your stuff (e.g. having them organize your storage unit), you could probably trust them with a random person's documents. I believe the execs are actually employees of Exec, not random people (like task rabbit). There's a log of who was assigned to what task, etc., and it's a company (backed by YC) which would have a lot to lose if one of their agents did something bad. I would probably not trust an exec with root on my servers (seems out of scope of what they offer), or huge piles of unaccounted-for-cash or loaded firearms, but I'd certainly trust them more than I'd trust a random person, and probably more than any cleaning/etc. person I could personally hire otherwise.

patio11 14y ago

As someone who has lost immigration documents before, I heartily approve of whichever method you choose to get them back to me, regardless of whether that is a) handing it over to a secretary, b) handing it over to the cops, or c) handing it over to the first foreigner you meet on the assumption that all foreigners probably know each other. That last one lead to a truly surreal telephone conversation with someone who, well, speaks Chinese a lot better than I do, but we did eventually get it sorted out.

ahi 14y ago
I don't know about Japan, but I suspect that in most major metropolitan areas in the US b) has roughly the same chance of success as dropping them out of an airplane.
- waiwai933 14y ago
  I'd go to a smaller police station personally, but then I live in the suburbs, where we have police officers who do have the time to do the legwork and return it. I do agree, though, the police's reliability can get spotty at times.

civilian 14y ago

Don't trust police.

justindocanto 14y ago

What's better: A) Picking up and giving to EXEC when you don't have time to deal with it B) Leaving on the ground and letting possibly worse hands get a hold of it Although handling it himself could have been better (assuming he is more trustworthy then EXEC), It was a responsible choice.

waiwai933 14y ago
Well, my point was C) Pick it up and return it at some later point. Yes, A is much, much better than B, and the more responsible choice, but better != good.

rdl 14y ago

He's an existing customer of exec. If you'd trust them with your stuff (e.g. having them organize your storage unit), you could probably trust them with a random person's documents. I believe the execs are actually employees of Exec, not random people (like task rabbit). There's a log of who was assigned to what task, etc., and it's a company (backed by YC) which would have a lot to lose if one of their agents did something bad. I would probably not trust an exec with root on my servers (seems out of scope of what they offer), or huge piles of unaccounted-for-cash or loaded firearms, but I'd certainly trust them more than I'd trust a random person, and probably more than any cleaning/etc. person I could personally hire otherwise.