True crime

This is a “man-bites-dog” story about background checks. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel recently carried a story about how charter boat captains are starting to do background checks on their customers.

This isn’t as weird as it might sound. It turns out that those charter boat captains have a good reason. They don’t want to suffer the same fate as the captain and crew of a boat named the “Joe Cool.” Here’s how the Sun-Sentinel tells the story.

The 47-foot Joe Cool fishing boat left Miami on Sept. 22 with a four-person crew and two men bound for the Bahamas. Two days later, the men were found in a life raft and the boat without its crew. Despite claiming hijackers had killed the crew, dumping their bodies overboard, the men were later charged with murder.

So now the charter captains are going to use background checks to delve into their customers’ pasts. It may seem weird, but it’s really good business practice.

What they’re doing is not much different from what an employer does when he or she investigates a prospective hire. You want to make sure the person you’re bringing in to your company won’t be dangerous to you or to others […]