Veteran Denied Job After Company Makes Background Check Mistake

5-15-2010 Kansas:

KANSAS CITY, KAN - A metro veteran needed a job to help pay some bills and get back on his feet, but he says the opportunity to work at the Schlitterbahn water park in Kansas City, Kansas, was taken away from him after he was falsely accused of being a sex offender.

Christopher Michael Reynolds says that he was supposed to start at the water park on May 4th, but when he showed up, officials told him to leave after he was informed that he was a registered sex offender.

"My jaw just dropped, I mean, no way," said Reynolds. "I was like, this is so untrue."

According to ADP, the company that conducts background checks for Schlitterbahn, Christopher Reynolds was convicted of sexual battery in Bexar, Indiana, on March 11, 2007.

But there is a big problem with the company's background check.

"When this happened, I was in Iraq, serving in the Army National Guard," said Reynolds.

Reynolds has a solid alibi with his military records, and the more he investigated, the more Reynolds learned about ADP's investigation.

"His eye color, his height, the weight, the fact that I've never been to Indiana," said Reynolds, who says that he even found a picture of the other Christopher Reynolds, the sex offender, who also has a different middle name.

It was a silly mistake, but one that Reynolds says has some serious implications.

"I was really relying on this job to get some stuff paid off, to get back on my feet," said Reynolds, who has been out of work for months and is now living at a homeless shelter. "I came home for medical issues for PTSD and depression and have been seeing a doctor for that. When I found out I had this job, I was excited, and when I found out I lost it, I was kind of down again."

Schlitterbahn spokesperson Jeffrey Siebert says that this wasn't the first time that ADP has gotten a background investigation wrong.

"If there is, for whatever reason, uncertainty, we just want to make sure that that is cleared up," said Siebert, who says that Reynolds will be allowed to continue the application process.

But Reynolds says no thanks, saying that he doesn't want the job because he's afraid that potential coworkers would have heard only the wrong half of the story. ..Source.. Stephanie Hockridge

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