LUXEMBOURG-VILLE — What was supposed to be a routine visit to an administrative office on Tuesday turned out to be an embarrassment for one local man who was forced to admit that he didn’t know his own phone number.
The man, 37, who is inclined to believe that like most adults, he has committed to memory his important personal information, visited the Bierger-Center to register an address change.
When the female employee asked for the man’s home telephone number, a look of panic overtook his face.
“Yeah, sure, phone number,” he said, looking around the room as if it might appear on one of the walls. “Don’t you have it already on your computer?”
“Yes, but I need to verify that it’s correct,” the employee responded. “You can also give me your mobile number.”
After a few uncomfortable moments, during which he mumbled something about not having slept well, and then about having suffered a head injury when he was 10 — which was not true — the man’s eyes lit up as he pulled his mobile phone from his pocket.
“New phone, new phone number,” he lied, frantically scrolling through his address book to find his own name.
After reading the number to the employee, he returned his phone to his pocket and looked around to see if anyone else had witnessed the public display of his own monumental incompetence.
“Yes, that’s the telephone number we’ve got,” the employee said. “It’s the same one, actually, that we’ve had on file for you since 2009.”
Later in the day, the man believed that he would have an opportunity to redeem himself when he visited a new optometrist for an eye exam. After proudly reciting to the receptionist his name, new address, and both telephone numbers, he once again found himself helpless when she asked for his social security number — which, he was forced to admit — he didn’t know despite having been registered with the Social Security office since moving to Luxembourg in 2007.
