Author Topic: Wrong number stories  (Read 1992 times)

whiterose

Wrong number stories
« on: July 27, 2018, 04:13:26 pm »
Can't have enough of them!

Please share them!

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Luci

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Re: Wrong number stories
« Reply #1 on: July 27, 2018, 04:41:03 pm »
Do mean like the one about an acquaintance who received a wrong number and ended up marrying the guy? And the divorced about 3 years later?

whiterose

Re: Wrong number stories
« Reply #2 on: July 27, 2018, 04:44:06 pm »
Anything and everything you have received. Or family has received. Or you have seen somewhere else online.

VorFemme

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Re: Wrong number stories
« Reply #3 on: July 27, 2018, 05:30:19 pm »
Two were memorable - back in 1980, when you had an actual machine with a small tape cassette in it to answer your landline phone and take messages, I got a phone call from a very belligerent drunk (slurring words) who asked me for a name that was so not mine - call her Viola Geranium (not the name) and telling me to get his daughter (he was not nice about the names he was calling her or me) to the phone right this minute or (something not very nice) was going to happen to me if he had to drive over there to talk to her.  Irate just barely describes the depth of his emotion...

I'd never heard of the woman and we'd had the number for over a year at our new house.  After he finally got off the phone - I called the phone company and told them that they would be changing our phone number immediately because of the threats and the rest of the "conversation" (his side of it, at least).  I was told that it would cost me, as we hadn't had the number that long - when VorGuy got home, I told him that we had a new phone number & why.  Wish I'd let the answering machine pick the call up - I might have been able to play the tape for the phone company and get the fee waived...didn't think about it until later.

Fast forward several years, and we'd been living in a new house for about two years - when another drunk calls and starts calling me by the correct first name but a different last name and trying to convince me that he is my brother, Bubba.  I'd been trying to get the phone company to contact the family of that name, because their second phone line (teenagers) in the phone book had OUR unpublished number printed under that name as the number for the teenagers.  Bubba was quite upset that I didn't recognize my own big brother (I have two younger brothers - I am the oldest sibling).  Since the phone number was not in our name, I couldn't get them to change the listing in the next phone book and I couldn't get the other family to pick up on their other phone number to get them to contact the phone number to ask for the correction (not my listing - phone company didn't care). 

I just kept telling the callers that the number they had was ours and that no one of that name lived in the household.  I was so glad when it came time to replace our DSL modem with a cable modem - we had two phone lines, we dropped the number that was in the phone book and the former DSL line became our phone number.  We quit getting phone calls from Bubba, any of the teenagers' friends, or whoever else was using the wrong number from the phone book. 
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wonderfullyanonymous

Re: Wrong number stories
« Reply #4 on: July 27, 2018, 07:48:22 pm »
While I was still living at home, I was home by myself. The phone rings and I pick it up, and the person on the other end, says "Hi,Jackie," and starts just a chattering away. She asked me about someone and all I could says was, "You have a Jackie, but I have no idea who you are."  She asked if I was the number she dialed, and I said, nope, not my number.

We both agreed, it was very strange.
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Luci

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Re: Wrong number stories
« Reply #5 on: July 27, 2018, 10:29:58 pm »
Someone in toward the city that we lived 40 miles away from bounced a check at a grocery chain I had never heard. The check casher's name was the feminine version of DH's first name and our last name. The caller threatened to have the law after us and I told them to call DH when he got home. That didn’t go very far. DH told them equally firmly we had a lawyer. No yelling or swearing. Just very firm statements on either side. It didn’t go anyway.

We were newly weds and some gentleman thought he was calling the owner of a munitions factory. I looked around at our tiny house and used furniture and told him same first and last name, but not us. He said, "Are you sure?"

A little girl kept calling a addressing me as Grandma in a frightened voice. It was before 911 was developed and I didn’t know we could dial 6 to get the phone number. I never did find out. I hope she's OK.
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Dr. F.

Re: Wrong number stories
« Reply #6 on: July 28, 2018, 10:31:45 am »
When I was in grad school, there was a kindergarden teacher with my same first and last name in our small town. This is unusual - my first name is common, but my last name is fairly rare. So, I'd pretty routinely get calls about various kids. The amount of information about their small children that people would happily leave on an unknown answering machine was mind-boggling. I heard ALL ABOUT toilet training problems, lice, roundworms, and various tendencies to bite (but it's not a problem, really!), but the worst was a woman who called while I was there, and WOULD NOT believe that I wasn't really the teacher, and just lying about it. She ended up shouting at me that there couldn't possibly be two people in this small town with the same name! I was a lying yadda-yadda (even with the more relaxed rules on swearing here, I'm not comfortable repeating what she called me). It finally ended when she yelled, "I don't care what you lying [expletive] say, my kid DON'T SWEAR!"

I couldn't help it. I started laughing, and she hung up. She left me several more abusive phone messages before her child finally graduated from kindergarden and I fortunately had no further contact with her.
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Rose Red

Re: Wrong number stories
« Reply #7 on: July 28, 2018, 05:36:30 pm »
My family used to get calls only for the caller to hang up. We jokingly made up a name for this caller, Paul.

We moved after almost 15 years in this house to a new town with a brand new phone number. The first call we received was a wrong number who asked "Is Paul there?" :o
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sandisadie

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Re: Wrong number stories
« Reply #8 on: July 28, 2018, 06:24:29 pm »
Back in the 80's we lived in South Florida.  We kept getting calls from a guy who thought his girl friend was at that number and was shacking up with someone and hiding out from him.  No matter what we told him he just kept calling off and on for months and months.  Finally, my husband had had enough and so he told this guy that he could stop calling because the girl friend had eloped with a new man and moved far, far away.  We never got another call!
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Rho

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Re: Wrong number stories
« Reply #9 on: July 28, 2018, 10:19:05 pm »
  One Friday afternoon a frustrated teacher left a message on my phone telling me if my son Daniel did not turn in his homework Monday he would flunk her class. Not my son, not even a school in my district.  I called back the number to be connected to a school office.  Whoever answered the phone was not interested and refused to investigate what teacher left a message without checking if it was to the correct person.  I have no idea if Daniel ever passed his math class.  A few months later another teacher called me about Daniel.  T his woman was kinder and promised to let the school know not to use my number as Daniels contact.
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kckgirl

Re: Wrong number stories
« Reply #10 on: July 29, 2018, 05:03:28 pm »
Back before cell phones and caller ID, I was awakened very early on a Saturday morning (around 4 a.m.) and a woman asked for Kenneth (made up name here). I told her she had the wrong number, that there was no Kenneth here. Repeat about three times every 20-30 minutes. When I repeated that she had the wrong number, she said, "Well, this is the number he gave me, you b@#$%!" every time she called. Later that morning, the phone rang and it was her again. This time she just said, "I'm sorry" and hung up. I was *really* mad at Kenneth, too. He didn't think about the person at the random number he gave her.
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Snowfire

Re: Wrong number stories
« Reply #11 on: July 30, 2018, 12:07:14 am »
My Mom and I are both fans of beautiful sunsets, rainstorms, other fun weather. We will frequently call each other and just say "Go out and look at the sunset" or "Run outside, there is a rainbow."  Just one sentence, then hang up so that the other person can go out quickly & see the weather in question. We started this in the days before cordless or cell phones so you couldn't take the phone with you.

One evening there was a particularly bright sunset, big fluffy clouds, all purples and pinks and the mountains were bright gold. I dialed quickly, told the woman who answered to go out and look at the sunset and I hung up so I could go out and watch it.  The next day I asked Mom if she had seen the sunset when I called.  She looked puzzled. I hadn't called her.  :-[ I do hope that the woman I accidentally dialed went out and enjoyed it, though.
If the DM is smiling, it is too late to run.
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vintagegal

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Re: Wrong number stories
« Reply #12 on: July 30, 2018, 07:04:40 am »
When I got my first cell phone, I kept getting calls in Spanish (southern US). Asking for a man with a hispanic name. He must have had the number before me. Most of them were from a law office, I believe . I told them he no longer had the number, they said they would keep calling as it was the only number they had. They suggested I talk to the phone company, which I did, they couldn't do anything. Finally after a few years they gave up.

I also got a text on this number that sounded like a drug deal. I forwarded it to the sheriff's dept in the area where the number came from. I had looked up the previous owner and he was behind bars.

Bada

Re: Wrong number stories
« Reply #13 on: July 30, 2018, 09:47:54 am »
I was in college but with my family on a vacation. I met a guy where we were staying and we chatted and flirted a little bit. My family joked about the fact that he was a Mormon and that he wanted me to be wife number 5.  Naturally I ignored them.  I called this guy after I returned home and we made tentative plans to meet on a certain day in the big city relatively close to us/in the middle of our home towns.

A few days later I get a call from a very angry woman demanding to know if I spoke to "Joe."  My sister's nickname is "Jo", so I'm momentarily at a loss trying to figure out if she wants to speak to Jo and why I'm being yelled at.  Finally I realize she wants to know if I called Joe. I told her this is my whole family's phone and I don't know which of the 5 of us might have called someone named Joe and that she probably has the wrong number and to leave us alone.  She finally hangs up.  As I'm hanging up the phone I look at the caller ID and the phone prefix. Then have the striking realization that the guy I had met on the train was named Joe...and his phone number had the same prefix as the angry woman calling me.

I don't know if he wanted to make me wife number 5, but I guess he wasn't faithful to the one he already had, at the very least.  I was too embarrassed and appalled to call her back to tell her I realized she hadn't called the wrong number after all.

This story has become family lore, so all's well that ends well, I guess.

Hmmm

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Re: Wrong number stories
« Reply #14 on: July 30, 2018, 03:32:23 pm »
This is long. Back in the late 80's, it was common (may still be) for apartment complexes to have security gates where guests would dial the apartment number and it would ring to your home phone number and you'd hit 1 to open the gate.

One night I'm awoken about 2am to a "Tim, it's Paul. Open the gate. I forgot my card." I respond with "I don't know the who is this, I think your dialing the wrong apartment." Guys replies sorry and hangs up.

An immediate return call and I answer with an aggravated "Hello" and I get a "Hey, who is this? Why are you answering my phone? Why are you in my apartment?" I now can hear the guy is intoxicated. I explain that I am not answering his phone, I'm answering mine and ask what apartment number he is trying to dial. He responds with my apartment number and I explain that he's made a mistake because this is my apartment and I was not planning for any guests. He says no, it's his apartment number and he just moved in that weekend. I say I've been living here for 6 months and he must have the wrong apartment number and I hang up.

He calls back. I don't answer. He calls back again and I answer again very angrily and he demands I let him talk to Tim his roommate. I again explain that he must have his apartment number confused because there is no Tim. I repeat that I've lived at apartment 1108 at Main Apartments for 6 months. He says "I don't live at Main Apartments, I live at Center Apartments." I say "Dude your at the wrong complex!" I hang up and just take the phone off the hook.

Next morning around 10am another call "It's Paul, open the gate, I forgot my card." I say "Paul, this is not your apartment, You are ringing an apartment at Main Apartments." He says "how can that be. I'm looking at the sign and I'm at Center Apartments." It suddenly hits me what's happened. I ask what his new phone number is. Yep, it's my phone number with 2 numbers reversed. I try to explain to him that the complex must have entered the number in wrong. He says that can't be because if I don't live at Main Apartments there's no way my phone number could be hooked up to their gate. I try to explain the technology to him and ask that he contact his leasing office. He just doesn't get it and is convinced that I am somehow my fault. I give up and I just hit the 1 and open the gate for him.

I call the management company at Main Apartments and explain what has happened. Manager looks up the info provided by Tim or Paul, and one of them has given them my phone number. She apologizes and says she'll get it corrected.  I did get a call later from Tim apologizing for waking me up.