CLEVELAND — To be or not to be, really, isn’t the question for a Cleveland man these days. It’s more like, is he alive or isn’t he? It’s a strange question that Terrance T. Brown said he wasn’t getting answers to, so he turned to the News 5 Investigators for help.
"See, I was one of those kids who [grew] up watching Scooby-Doo. So, it’s a mystery to me now,” said Brown. He told us that the mystery started when he went to get his birth certificate at Cleveland City Hall last year.
FILLING OUT THE FORMS
He said by mistake he filled out the wrong form and, to his surprise, he said he got his supposed death certificate.
"[The clerk] went back through the records and looked at it, and she was like, no, it’s right,” said Brown.
He told us he went back a second time and, on purpose, filled out a death certificate form and then got the same result.
"How did you feel at that moment?” we asked.
"I didn’t know how to feel,” reflected Brown.
FULL OF QUESTIONS
He said his family didn’t offer any clarity on the matter, and he even visited the nearby Social Security office twice. However, again, he said he received no answers.
He noticed his Social Security number starts with a four, which means, at the time, it was issued out of Alabama and not Cleveland, where he was born.
"And [the Social Security employee] was like, '[That’s] not supposed to happen.' That’s exactly what she told me, like that [isn't] supposed to happen,” said Brown.
FINDING SOME ANSWERS
We contacted Social Security, which wrote that it has no record of Brown dying and that his Social Security card wasn’t issued until his family moved to Alabama when he was 7 years old.
"Why couldn’t anyone tell me what was going on at the time? Why did I have to call Channel 5 News to actually get an answer?” said Brown during our interview.
"This was a case where it was miscommunication,” said Cleveland City spokesperson Tyler Sinclair.
He told us Brown didn’t quite fill out all the info on the death certificate form, so the clerk thought she gave him the record he wanted.
On a closer look, the death certificate spells Terrance differently with a different middle initial and other info clearly not the Terrance Brown in this story.
"So, for the official record, Terrance T. Brown is alive?” we asked, tongue-in-cheek.
“Correct,” Sinclair smiled.
He suggested that everyone carefully fill out the birth and death forms, verify the documents you receive and if they’re not right, within a year, come back and the city will issue a refund. He said even though it’s been over a year for Brown, the refund offer still stands.
"At the end of the day ... it’s resolved ... you were able to bring it to our attention. We appreciate that,” said Sinclair.
Brown told us he’s going to look into this more just to be sure his records are correct.
"This is serious to me. It’s me,” said Brown. “So, if I give up on myself, then I give up on everything, right? I can’t do that.”
This story came to us as a tip. So, if you want Jonathan Walsh to investigate your concern, call 216-431-3721 or email him at Jonathan.Walsh@WEWS.com.
