One of the more bizarre conversations I have ever participated in occured about four years ago when I was working as a field service rep in the two-way radio business. An attractive, well dresssed woman walked into the shop and requested that we set up an appointment to test the AC power circuits in her house. I explained that our business involved radio, and that she would be better served by contacting the local utility company. She had already done that, she said, but the tech found no problems.
What did she expect of me, then? To check the outlets for radio waves which the government was using to control her mind. You see, the utility man was in on the plot. Of COURSE he would give her house a clean bill of health. He was part of the conspiracy! Since the small shop I worked in was presumably not on the government payroll, I'd quickly find all the secret transmitters and free her from the dastardly plot to enslave her with radio waves.
I didn't know what to say, other than that our service schedule was booked solid for weeks. That was enough to send her to our competitor, who told me the same story the next time I met him while working at a transmitter site.
She BELIEVED. Really and truly. She had lost control of her mind to government radio waves. You could talk to her until you were blue in the face and she would swear it was so.
Does that mean it was?