While I was online earlier, I got a message on my voice mail.
It was a filthy message directed at my 10 year old son, the caller said his name. I played a small part of it to my son and he doesn’t know the caller.
If it was simply a prank call, I wouldn’t be worried. But they said my kids name and They said this:
“I’m supposed to stick it up his ass later tonight”
“He likes my penis”
My husband wants to call the police, But it’s been my experience that the poilce around here don’t do anything unless someone is killed.
They made a report and for once took it seriously. The cop even spoke to my son to calm him down.
The caller left a phone number, and the cop looked into it, but it was an elderly couple who lived there, however it seems that the troublemaker has been calling other people and leaving the elderly couple’s number all over the place.
Maybe the phone company can trace the call to its origin. I would do everything I had to do to stop this guy from upsetting your child or others. He could start acting out his fantasies if he is not already doing that. I’m sorry if what I say frightens you.
Tell the phone company, if you haven’t already. They ferociously defend against phone abuse. They can, with your permission, monitor your line, and they can trace calls, even the ones that block Caller ID. If they find the guy, the first thing they’ll do is take away his phone service forever. Then they’ll take him to court.
In my area, dialing “*58” immediately after receiving one of these phone calls records the phone number of the last person that called you onto a special database that the phone company will then (after receiving written authorization from you) forward to the police.
Note that the phone company will not tell you what that phone number was - they will only forward it to the police, and only after receiving written permission from you.
Also note that you can make as many phone calls as you want between receiving the threatening call and dialing *58. In our case, we received a threatening call, called the police, and they told us to dial *58 after we finished talking to them - folks had received a number of these calls, and they wanted to have as many verifiable instances as possible to reference when they caought the fellow making those calls.
Also, if the caller’s ID isn’t blocked, you can press *69 to get the number where the call originated.
It’s likely that it’s a local teen playing a prank; however, I agree with the others here that you just can’t be too careful these days. You’ve done the right thing. Since you can’t be with your son 24/7, just remind him to be aware of his surroundings and use some ‘street smarts’ to avoid finding himself in a vulnerable position.