I was working for this x-ray lab. They hired a new guy who seemed pretty sharp. The new guy was assigned to work at a pipeline station job. Well, about a month goes by, and my boss asked me one day to stop by and check out his work. Boss was proud of this guy cuz, he really was cranking out the work too. I started randomly going thru the big stack of film he had piled up. Everything looked pretty good too. I mean it, he had good sensitivity, good density, darn nice shots. One film though, I noticed this squiggly little arc strike on the side of a weld, kinda wierd lookin', but didn't pay much attention. Raised an eyebrow when I saw it again a few welds later, then one more time. I got kinda curious, and started over at the top of the pile of film. Well, you know what..I saw that same darn squiggly little arc strike again... and again....and again. I'll be danged, that welder made that exact same perfectly identical arc strike on at least 20 welds!
Heck-No wonder he was producing more radiographs that anyone else!
All the pipe was buried by now too.
Well, I told the boss about it, and you know what...the next day they let him go!
Months later... he went out to this Nuclear Power plant job out East somewhere, he even called to brag about making big cake shootin' welds out there.
Funny, A few years later these two serious looking guys in black suits with business cards that have only three big letters "FB&I" stopped by at the same testing lab just to visit me. They were want'in to ask me questions about this same guy! Well, I told them the same story and they seemed pretty interested cuz they took lots of notes.
Later on, I heard he wasn't working at that power plant anymore. In fact, i heard he was wearin' a funny colored jump suit ...and had lots of free time!
(unfortunately, true story)