So I perform a Refi closing for a nice couple about 5 miles away around 4:00 PM. Next day title calls, the lender "forgot" some docs and will pay me to go again. Fine. I call the wife, and after hemming and hawing, she says Mr. is in jail for an unknown time. Call title back with a new quote for Jail Signing which is 30 miles out in the desert (criminals don't escape here - if they do they usually die).
Title says okay and so I go out during visiting hours. I get there and get in line with visitors - weird people - piercings, tattoos, chains, studded boots - you get the picture.
I check in at the main desk and tell the officer why I am there. He directs me to a special door and buzzes me in after eyeballing my 3 IDs and my business card. I'm carrying my briefcase. No big deal. He doesn't care. I go through the door and there is a metal detector. Set briefcase off to the side on the table and walk through. Fine. I tell them I am here to see Mr. X to sign documents. They look him up in the computer and hand me my briefcase, no check, no X-ray, no nothing - just "here, don't forget this."
Then, the guard tells me to go through this door, turn right and walk down to "F" Pod and see the Sergeant. No escort, just go stroll down this long hallway. With an unchecked brief case. Oh well, off I go. Miscellaneous prisoners walking by in orange suits. Some nod. Open the outer "F" Pod door and I am in a anteroom with a drunk guy on the floor and a video camera. The drunk asks if I'm a lawyer. I tell him no. Then it dawns on me, they don't check lawyer's briefcases. The camera rotates, looks at me and the door buzzes open. I go in and ask for Mr. X. The pod is teeming with inmates - the jail is overflowing, and they're sleeping in rows on the floor to accommodate. The PA system calls Mr. X to the desk.
Mr. X comes over, apologizes profusely for the inconvenience, and we sign the paperwork, none of which actually requires a notary. I wish him good luck and thank the Sergeant. The drunk is now asleep and I bid farewell to "F" Pod and take the walk back. About 15 prisoners and a guard marching single file past me - none too menacing, but more like sad souls caught up in the relentless Gears of Justice. I leave with no check at all, save for one officer bidding me goodbye. Just another Mobile Notary experience.
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