After he was evicted from the BB4 house, retired FBI agent Jack Owens needed a little time to readjust to "normal" life back home with his family in Birmingham, Alabama. "I set all my clocks to Pacific time," he recalls, "rationed the food, stayed up late, slept toward noon, and had my family announce each morning: 'HouseGuests, it's time to get up.' I occasionally closed all the drapes in the house to simulate lockdowns and set up cameras around the ceilings to make me feel more at home. I felt like a hostage released from a benign kidnapping."

Since then, Jack has been busy writing articles, short stories, a book based on his 30 years with the FBI and a screenplay. One of his articles, about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, was published in summer 2003, while he was living in the BIG BROTHER house.

When not hunched over his keyboard, Jack spends time with his wife, Pat, and their six children and five grandchildren. He and Pat love to travel, and as self-proclaimed "Boss groupies," they follow Bruce Springsteen to his concert sites. At other times, Jack accompanies Pat on her business trips, when his job is to drive the rental car and order the drinks.

Wherever he roams, Jack keeps in touch with quite a few of his BB friends. "I made lifelong friends on BB4," he notes, "not only with my fellow HouseGuests on BB4 and other shows, but with producers and many others behind the scenes as well. I regularly stay in touch with Erika, Jun and Dana, and try not to go too long without reaching out to Justin, David, Nathan and Robert. I've phoned Amanda and Jee since leaving BB4, and enjoy talking to and writing Josh from BB1 and Danielle from BB3. I send Christmas cards to everyone."

Although he left the BB house in 2003, Jack's days as a HouseGuest have left their stamp on him: "Being a HouseGuest was an adventure that I treasure, and I can't imagine not having been a strawberry. I also think that I've gotten the hang of getting out of a spinning chair, but I'm not certain."

It's no surprise that our favorite strawberry still gets recognized on the street. "I enjoy talking to people about being a HouseGuest," Jack insists. "I tell them that I'm not really a celebrity, just a guy who got evicted from a house. Folks stop me wherever I go, even when I'm out of the United States. They're polite and complimentary, which is quite flattering. I was under wraps as an FBI agent, kept quiet and out of sight. Then I went on BB4. Did I really do that?"