Prank Calls

I've done my fair share of prank calls in my lifetime.  Of course, most of that came to a screeching halt once Caller ID was invented.  Caller ID takes the fun out of everything...sometimes. 

Last Monday was Columbus Day and our area public schools had the day off.  Fletcher was at school (since they don't have school on Fridays, they don't take all those Monday holidays).  Luke and I were at home just hanging out doing our Monday stuff like laundry.  Around noon my phone rang.  I didn't recognize the name on Caller ID, but it was a person's name not a business or telemarketing name so I answered it.  After I said "Hello", no one said anything.  Our home phone number is unique in that the last four digits are all the same number (easy for our kids to remember).  However, because those digits are all the same, we get wrong number calls all the time because people dial incorrectly. So I figured it was just a wrong number so I hung up. 

Not even a minute later, the phone rang again.  Same person.  This time when I picked up and said "hello", I heard girls giggling on the other end.  One of them said something like "your butt's on fire".  (I checked, it wasn't.)  It was then that I realized these girls were home from school and bored.  Mom or Dad was probably either at the office or working upstairs not paying a bit of attention to what the kiddos were doing.  My guess is that they were trying to call a friend/enemy of theirs.

Obviously, these girls knew how to dial a phone, but they didn't know about Caller ID. 

They called one more time.  More giggling.  More silly talk that I couldn't understand.  And they hung up. 

I happened to be at my computer.  I'm really not sure what came over me.  If they don't know about Caller ID then they certainly don't know about reverse phone number look up on the computer.  I looked up their number and found their address.  They live in a neighborhood not too far from us. 

They called again.  This is the fourth call in less than 5 minutes.  This time I answered and said in a freaky, menacing voice, "You live at 2204 Magnolia Drive* and I am COMING TO YOUR HOUSE RIGHT NOW!  I am coming to 2204 Magnolia Drive NOW."  I hear them stop giggling and suck all the oxygen out of the room they were in.  Then they hung up. 

I know.  It was so wrong.  I shouldn't have done it. 

I hope they totally freaked out.  I was imagining them cowering in their bedrooms terrified of every car that drove by.  They really were in a bit of a dilemma.  If they told their parents, they would have to admit that they were prank calling people.  If they don't tell their parents, a deranged housewife might show up at their door any minute. 

I think they must have told their parents.  The next afternoon I got a message on my answering machine from a little girl.  This time she was calling from Dad's cell phone.  She said very nervously, "I'm sorry for that calling we did yesterday.  Wrong number."  She sounded a little tired, like maybe she didn't sleep much the night before. 

Let that be a lesson to you, little girl.  I know where you live!

*I changed the address to protect the innocent.