08/18/2026
Another True Story from Colley Avenue Copies
You Never Know
We’ve work closely with a major University who worked closely with sensitive government projects, over the years we found out that you can never judge a book by it’s cover.
Take Ms. E, for example. We worked with a little old lady for years, printing poetry and art books. As physician’s wife, we assumed she lived a life of hostessing dinner parties and attending wives clubs. An all around delightful and creative person, wonderful to work with. After her passing we found out from her obituary that she was an agent with the precursor of the CIA.
Through the years we have worked with many interesting people and projects with copying of proposals and other sensitive materials, and acted as support staff for several sensitive projects. The Copy Center itself played a strange role. For a time, we acted as a front for a DOD project housed in the same building as the original Colley Avenue Copy Center. We projected a “Nothing To See Here” image while amazing research was being done just a couple of doors down the hall! Can’t judge a book indeed!
Of all of the experiences we had, the strangest one was when we met with the government officials from the FBI and Department of Energy, also known as the “Men in Black”. The mainframe for the US Department of Energy had gotten hacked. They tracked down a suspect to an email account for a scientist at the Thomas Jefferson Labs. Everyone associated with the email account holder, no matter how slim a relationship, was interviewed. They spoke with was the daughter of the scientist whose email was compromised, and asked her if she knew anyone who could have accessed her father’s computer. Her boyfriend, “K”, was a longtime employee, and she gave him up, very quickly. Within in a short time, two gentlemen in black suits arrived at our offices. We were requested to join the interview. The agents had Holly, myself and “K” in our small meeting room. Holly requested their business cards, as it was a company policy to put the contact information of anyone requesting information on our employees in their employment file. They declined. Holly then asked to see their badges, the FBI agent provided his badge, when asked to see the other persons badge, that official again declined. Their interrogation of was brief, but intense. They found their hacker, someone outside of the US and someone not even associated with our employee, his girlfriend or her family. We still wonder who that other guy was.
