If you asked most non-Notaries what notarizations are like, they’d probably use words like “quiet,” “unexciting,” or “dull” — but Notaries know better. We recently asked members of the NNA’s Facebook community to share their strangest on-the-job experiences, and there were some wild ones. For example:
A Bizarre Coincidence: Dave Grinnell of Ohio told us about the time he was asked to perform a loan document signing for a husband and wife the evening after Grinnell was selected for jury duty. The wife met Grinnell at her home and told him that her husband would be arriving shortly. Grinnell got the surprise of his life when the husband walked in — it turned out he was the defending attorney in the same case Grinnell was serving jury duty on. Surprisingly, Grinnell said the judge let him stay on the jury, despite the possible conflict of interest.
Bubble Trouble: Kids and pets can sometimes create awkward distractions during a loan document signing, as Catherine James of California can attest to. While notarizing signatures on loan documents one day, the signer’s young son came up to Catherine and decided to strike up a conversation. What made it especially awkward was that the boy was wearing nothing but bath bubbles.
And The Strangest Story Goes To: Amy Childress of Nevada, whose encounter has to be one of the oddest we’ve ever heard. When she arrived at the signer’s home, she was shown into the living room and was surprised to see a full-grown camel. According to Childress, the signers said they were letting the camel stay in their living room because it was too cold outside!
Do you have an oddball notarization story you’d like to share? Tell us about it on Facebook!
David Thun is an Associate Editor at the National Notary Association.