This pilot fish has his own computer support business, and also does some PC repair work for friends on the side.
"I got a call from a friend-of-a-friend who had a computer with the FBI ransomware," fish says. "I went over to remove it.
"While there, the PC's owner told me the story of what happened. Her son -- in his early teenage years -- came to her bedroom at 1 a.m., frantically saying, 'Mom, I really need to talk to you.'
"When she woke up and came out, he told her that he had taken the laptop to his bedroom to look at 'dirty girls' and now the FBI was after him. Sobbing, he spilled the beans on everything he'd been doing on the computer at night over the past few months.
"They never told him that it wasn't the FBI, but they did add some new rules about computer use in their house."
Just in case it is the FBI, Sharky files off the identifying marks from your true tale of IT life. So send it to me at sharky@computerworld.com. You'll score a sharp Shark shirt if I use it. Add your comments below, and read some great old tales in the Sharkives.
Get your daily dose of out-takes from the IT Theater of the Absurd delivered directly to your Inbox. Subscribe now to the Daily Shark Newsletter.