Services workers come into your house, and for most of us our largest concern is whether they will do the job correctly, how much will they charge, and will they finish the job in a timely fashion. We are normally trusting souls and don’t think that they may come into our homes to steal from us or to do physical harm to our families. Because most working people are honest and decent, and they would never resort to violent crime.
And then there are the exceptions. Since Corra Group is a background checking service we have reviewed our share of bad examples. As attested in the Dallas Morning News, an Orlando, Florida Susan Weaver had hired two men to have her ducts cleaned. Months later, one of the service men returned to rape and murder her. He burned down her house in an attempt to hide the evidence. The murderer was a convicted sex offender, but no one knew it since no one ran a background check on him.
Now the victim’s sister, Lucia Bone, has formed a non-profit organization, lobbying to mandate background checks for home service and repair workers. Lucia named it in honor4 of her sister and called it the Sue Weaver C.A.U. S. E. Foundation, an acronym Consumer Awareness of Unsafe Service Employment. The Foundation will certify business that will adhere to safety standards, namely background checks. This would be the C.A.U.S.E. version of the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.
This is all terrific idea, and we would certainly like to see more services like C.A.U.S.E. We would hope that the founders would be proactive and initiate this service before anyone was physically harmed. It is an awful reality but unfortunately it takes a tragedy to implement background checks and other monitoring systems that will prevent against crimes. In the case of the one’s house, where one is supposed to feel safe and secure, it takes but one incident to end your life or to ruin your life. Where children are present, it is all the more reason to conduct background checks and the sexual offender registry search.
We applaud C.A.U.S.E. for its actions. We hope the Foundation will be an example for other regional and local groups.
Check them out before you hire.
