by Dreams End » Thu Aug 04, 2005 1:54 am
In response to some interesting comments under the "mystery man" post, I thought I'd start this thread...ESPECIALLY since, after commenting that I didn't have any weird phone stories of my own, I realized that one of the creepiest things that ever happened to me was a phone story! Interesting in itself that I'd forgotten it.<br><br>I'm not sure how long ago this was...at least a year. I was doing a very male internet thing (no, not THAT male internet thing) and looking around for info on an ex-girlfriend (and no, not THAT ex-girlfriend from my other post, from those who read it.)<br><br>We'd lived together for four years but it ended badly and she'd wanted no further contact. This was some years previous, but I wanted to see what she was up to. I admit, with embarrassment, that I actually used a paid online records search to do so. I am a loser. <br><br>With that search and just one hit on Google I saw that she'd moved to an area of the Northwest that she'd always spoken of with fondness... around Puget sound in Washington State. This actually made me feel good as I knew this was a dream of hers.<br><br>Now, because she was an ex-girlfriend of MINE, you already KNOW that she was a troubled one. Besides having suffered from severe abuse, she had a dad in MI6 . She really didn't know what he did, only that he'd travelled a lot and that all their mail came via a pouch and not the normal route. Once I asked her to name some of the times and places he'd been in and it was not a good list. I remember Chile in early 70's and Iran in '79. My memory is vague here, but I do remember saying to her...I think your Dad's been involved in some bad stuff.<br><br>I have no idea if that, or even this girlfriend is relevant to my story. Here's what happened. A week or two later I got a really disturbing call. Now, I'm going to describe it and it won't seem like much to you, but on a subjective level, sometimes these things just hit you where it creeps, so to speak. The caller simply asked if this was (my full name). I think he asked more than once as I got annoyed. Then he simply said, "Hey, (full first name), How ya feeeeeelin'?"<br><br>I have chills thinking about this call, and yet objectively...it's not really THAT weird. As prank calls go, it's not even creative.<br><br>Some skeptic on the Mystery Man commentary said that these weird sorts of phone stories stopped when caller ID started. For me, caller ID was part of the weirdness. I looked and it had the number and just the city name as ID. I couldn't call the number back...it was an automated voicemail system that did not identify who it belonged to. I actually don't remember the city name, but anyway, it was in Washington State. Oh shit, I thought. I looked it up on a map and it was a small town in the same area code as this ex-girlfriend I'd just been googling and snooping on. The voice was male, but you never know. My fear at the time was that somehow that online search service had tipped her off that someone was checking up on her and some friend had called me to back me off. I even contacted the online search service but they assured me that this could not happen.<br><br>I got two more calls from this number. Maybe three. But in those cases, no one said anything. I could hear a television in the back once...and I thought maybe a child talking but it was very faint. They stayed on a long time. But no conversation.<br><br>Then, on the last call, I saw the number on caller ID and picked up the phone in annoyance. Same number...but it was a credit card company...I had a card from them and they were telemarketing or something. What the fuck? I immediately told her that someone had been making calls from this number and described the calls. She put me on with her supervisor and I explained the deal to him. I canceled the card and he said he would investigate, but, naturally, I never heard anything else.<br><br>So, was it related to having checking around on the ex? And what, exactly, whether related or not, was this person...calling from a credit card company...up to? I don't know how these things work as the other calls seemed to be coming from a home, not an office. Maybe they have people make calls from their home that somehow get routed through their main number? I don't know.<br><br>I actually can't remember if it was always the exact same number, but it always had the city name on the caller ID...not "unknown name" as if blocked and not "private name" and, obviously, not any individual's name, so I assumed the calls came from the same phone system. <br><br>All I know is I was seriously creeped out. <br><br>Well, I won't be sleeping tonight. Let's hear your stories. <p></p><i></i>
