I was on the dialing end of a wrong number worth mentioning.
At the time, the principal of my high school had a last name that sounded much like one of the less inflammatory racial epithets for a person of African ancestry. His son and I were in a play together at the time, and I needed to speak to him. I called the number in the book trying to reach him, and got someone else. Assuming I had misdialed, I tried again with similar results. It seems that the number to the principal had been changed and re-issued to a redneck of the sort who goes through more white sheets than average, and they thought I was harassing them, and responded profanely. Things settled down when I explained who I was calling, using his full name and apologizing for the repeated calls.
I usually ask them to tell me more, please give me all the information. Then I set the phone down on the counter and go back to what I was doing. Eventually, I suppose, they hang up.
I like your way better.
When I was 16 and started driving on my own, my parents got me a cell phone. I kept turned off when I was at home or school, to conserve the battery. After a week or so, I saw that I had gotten a voice mail at some ungodly hour of the night. It started with, “Hey, TC, it’s JD,” and he was calling to ask about “the money” and asked for a call back, without leaving a number. Now, T and C are not my initials. In fact, I don’t have have a T anywhere in my name, so I assumed it was a wrong number. Then I got three similar calls over about a week and a half. I considered leaving the phone turned on, so I could answer it and tell “JD” that it was someone else’s number now, but a combination of fear and apathy kept me from it. About a week after the last call from “JD” I got another voicemail, but this one was from a nervous sounding woman. She said, “Hey, TC, it’s me. JD’s worried about the… collection. Please call me -or him- soon.” That was last one, so I assume the mob caught up with TC not long after.
Heh, a few times I got spam calls that showed as being from my own phone number.
