"Wrong number" stories

[starrzone]

For some reason, I was thinking the other day about the days before caller ID (which wouldn't make a difference at my parents' house, since they still don't have it!) when we had no idea who was on the other end of the line.

My parents' phone number has been the same since they moved to our area in 1980. For YEARS we would get almost daily calls asking for Juan. When we finally got the internet, I did a reverse lookup and determined that Juan's number went something like 555-1234, while ours is 556-1234. If I had been more of a smart alec, I could have had some fun with that one ("No, he left and said he was never coming back", "He went into the witness protection program", etc.).

One time, we got this message on our answering machine: "Hi Linda, we're pleased to tell you that the interview went very well and that we're offering you the position. Please call 555-5555 before Friday afternoon to accept the job". Well, we got the message early Friday and called the number right back! Poor Linda could have been jobless because of a wrong number!

 

[Holly]

We have an older woman in our town that calls "wrong" numbers. She always asks for Roberta (no one can figure out who Roberta is) but when we tell her she has the wrong number she will then start talking to whoever answers, having known exactly who she called.

She's lonely and a bit loopy (though harmless) and I guess it's her way to connect with people.

 

[taximomfor4]

a creepy one....

I was recently separated (and divorcING), alone with dd in a tiny rental cottage. I got a phone call one evening, from some guy. He said, " Hi! This used to be my old phone number, so I figured I would call to see who lives there now."

I was really confused how me getting his old # meant he knew where I lived???? So I fished a bit before hanging up, saying "Well this is my phone nubmber now. It isn't tied to wherever you THINK I moved into after you, it's given to the next person anywhere in the whole area who needs a phone #."

He insisted, " No, that was my old number so it means you moved into my old apartment on Vine, #blah-blah-blah, Building D."

At least I knew he didn't REALLY know where I lived alone with my 2yo dd!! So I said, "Well, it's MY # now. So you can get it out of your life permanently now." Then I hung up.

 

[CathrynRose]

When we first moved to Florida, we got a REALLY easy phone number. Gosh, I wish I could remember it. It was a "thousand" number. 555-1000. We thought "Wow, great! What an easy number!"

Well, it was the local high school's phone number, off by one. We were 555-1000 - they were 555-2000 (or whatever it was)

We never made our electronic voicemail message ourselves - so it just went into "Please leave a message for 555-1000"

I can't tell you how many messages we got, calling in kids sick. One day we had a buttload. Generally it was one or two a week, but it was so many we contemplated calling the school that day - "Johnny is sick, Lisa is sick, Jenny is sick...." because all we could imagine was the detentions they were handing out that day.

The 'easy' number turned into a big PIA.

 

[sue1013]

I was getting phone calls from an older man looking for his friend Tom everyday for about a week. Kept telling him he had the wrong number he insisted this was Tom's number even after I told him I'd had this number for 25 years and no Tom was ever here. We went on vacation for 2 weeks when we got back I had several messages from him looking for Tom. I knew his name and number from called ID did a lookup found out where he lived then looked for anyone with his same last name in that town. Found a number for who ended up to be his son. I called the son and explained what was going on he told me his fathers friend Tom recently went into a nursing home the father must have the wrong number he would try to get it through to him that my number was not Toms. The next day the older man called again left a message wanting to know why I told his son when his son doesn't need to know everything. I think the wrong guy was in the nursing home.

 

[flipturngirl]

a creepy one....

I was recently separated (and divorcING), alone with dd in a tiny rental cottage. I got a phone call one evening, from some guy. He said, " Hi! This used to be my old phone number, so I figured I would call to see who lives there now."

I was really confused how me getting his old # meant he knew where I lived???? So I fished a bit before hanging up, saying "Well this is my phone nubmber now. It isn't tied to wherever you THINK I moved into after you, it's given to the next person anywhere in the whole area who needs a phone #."

He insisted, " No, that was my old number so it means you moved into my old apartment on Vine, #blah-blah-blah, Building D."

At least I knew he didn't REALLY know where I lived alone with my 2yo dd!! So I said, "Well, it's MY # now. So you can get it out of your life permanently now." Then I hung up.

 

[Duchie]

When I was in college, I worked at a small local computer company that was in the 901 area code. Our phone lines were typical for an office in that we had our main number, and then 4 additional numbers in sequence (901-111-1111, 901-111-1112, etc.) If the main number was busy, it would roll to the next one, and so on down the line.

One day we started getting calls directly into the 4th line (901-111-1114) without the other 3 being busy. This was very unusual but I answered it anyway. The guy on the other end asked if he could speak to "the lady". We had several female employees so I asked him if he could tell me which one. He said, "The lady that will talk dirty to you!" I told him he had the wrong number and hung up. Everyone in the office got a pretty good laugh out of it and we thought that was the end of it.

Well, it wasn't. For about 3 months we kept getting these calls - different guys each time but all wanting the same thing. Finally I told one of the callers that I needed to verify the number he dialed, and it was our number. Then I asked him to tell me where he saw our ad and he told me it was in Hustler magazine. One of the office guys rushed right out to buy the magazine and found the culprit - one of the ads was supposed to have a 900#, but they had printed 901 instead. Eventually the problem must have been corrected because the calls stopped.

 

[a1tinkfans]

When I was growing up our phone number was ONE digit off from a local Cesspool company and those calls came at ALL hours

 

[flipturngirl]

Luckly our number is blocked..so we have not got any wrong numbers for years.. We used to get the local kid playing pranks and such..

My grandma was one digit off from the local pizza place... and when they kept calling one night she decided to start taking orders... Happened for many years.

 

[themilesfamily]

I accidentally dialed the wrong number once and reached the voicemail of the Vice President of Crayola Crayons.

I'm guessing it was his cellphone -- he called me back like 5 minutes later and asked if I was trying to reach him.

 

[NotUrsula]

When I was in grad school I had a number that was one digit off from a local hospital's "Call a ride" program that provided free taxis so that people would not drive drunk. My phone rang off the hook from about 1-3 am every single Friday and Saturday night.

NYE, St. Patrick's Day and Cinco de Mayo were especially fun

 

[ADisneyQueen]

When my DH ( at the time was my boyfriend) was in high school he got a phone call from someone who was trying to call the local number for the crisis center. The caller was depressed and suicidal. He talked to him for a while and then got him to call the right number. Later the caller called him back to tell him he was getting help and someone from the center talked to DH too to thank him.

We also got calls for a long time for someone who owed a lot of money and was no where to be found. Some were quite rude and insisted I was this guy's wife and knew what was going on.

 

[Ilivetogo]

My office has about 8 "trunk" lines. (One "main" number, and other "trunk" numbers that roll into the main one.)

One of my trunk line phone numbers is the same number (215) "555-5555" as the "800-555-5555" number to a local credit union. I guess if you're going to call in the city, you would typically use the (215) area code, so that's what many people are thinking. But the credit union is an 800 number, so people are dialing my office instead.

You would barely believe how easily these people just start rattling off their account numbers, and other personal info, etc. to the first person who answers the phone (me) -- and without even really knowing if they've called the right place or not!!! No wonder so many people get scammed in this world. Sometimes I literally have to interrupt people to get them to stop telling me stuff, so I can advise them they called the wrong number. Geez. (Unfortunately, many of them are elderly.) I usually tell the person they need to dial the number with "800" instead. Somtimes they even call me right back - getting it wrong once again.

It's a good thing I'm honest. I can't imagine what someone could do with all that info everyone is so willing to share!

 

[Abbie]

Well I hardly ever know who's calling since I've become too lazy to change the batteries in most of our phones for the caller id's!

When I was growing up, our number was one off from a local grocery store (the Giant) pharmacy. After numerous calls for the pharmacy, my mom decided she was going to have some fun with the next person who called. Next up was this quavery, elderly voice saying "is this the Giant?" and mom tells him "no, I'm just 5' tall!" Such a stunned silence.....then mom relented and gave him the correct number! She felt so bad that she never did it again!

 

[EeyoreEma]

I have some lady, who I don't know, call me every few weeks or so, and she'll either ask me something like "Is today Wednesday?", what the date is, or what time it is. She never asks for anyone, just asks her question and hangs up.

 

[SunshineOR]

We have a number that is apparently very similar to a man who is named Jason. I have a son named Jason, so there have been a few very confusing phone calls, but this one is my favorite:

"Hello?"
"Is Jason there?"
"Yes, but can I ask who is calling?"
"This is ________. Who is this?"
"This is Jason's mother and how does he know you?"
"Jason bought a pig at our last auction and I wanted to make arrangements for him to pick up the pig."
"Um...my son Jason is 6, and I can't quite figure out how he would have gotten himself to an auction and bought a pig. I think you have the wrong number."
"Isn't this Jason's house?"
"Yes, but you must have the wrong Jason, because the Jason who lives here is six years old."
"What? But Jason bought this pig and I need him to come get it."
"Sorry, I was wrong when I answered the phone. You have the wrong number. There is a Jason here, but not the Jason you need and the Jason here certainly has not been at an auction buying a pig."
and so it went on from there.

 

[PebblesMK]

I was at my parents when the phone rang. I answered it and it was a guy looking for some guy. When I told him that there was nobody here by that name, he apologized and started talking to me. Not a big deal...we talked about the town I live in (he was from Chicago but had family here). He told me his name was Rico Suave and asked me on a date. I declined. A few weeks later, I was over again and answered and it was Rico. He had his wife on the phone and they claimed to be looking for her aunt and after she hung up the other phone he told me how much he missed my voice and wanted to meet me. It turned out that he called every day and hung up if somebody else answered. Very creepy.

The other one came to my phone in the middle of the night. It was an extremely drunk guy who was really depressed because he and his wife were getting a divorce. He went off on a tangent and being the nice person I am-I listened and tried to give him some advice. After about two hours, I came to the realization that I knew who this guy was. One of my good friends had two children, the daughter was not his biological child. I loved his kids and spent time with them often...but the daughter hated her (bio) dad because he was always drinking and didn't care about her and never wanted to spend time with her. Her father was who I was on the phone with. When I mentioned that, he said "Ohhhhhhhhhhhh I hear about you alllll the time and she always wants to be around you!!" So really long story short, I kept in touch with him for a while but finally had to cut interaction due to his disdain for his daughter. Very odd.

 

[ogl91]

I changed my mates phone numbers around, his girlfriend to his dad.
and yes he text his dad saying he is horny

 

[Squirlz]

I had a number ending in 6830 and a local glass shop had 6380. Apparently they accidentally put MY number on their website. I got several calls for them, but one time I answered and the guy said "do you have a windshield for a MINI Cooper?" I said you have the wrong number but hey I have a MINI Cooper too! We had a nice little conversation.

 

[barkley]

a friend's parents had the same phone number for DECADES. in the 80's a popular theme park uproots and relocates to their town. one of the park's big attractions is an orca so the company pays the phone company to make the main number to the park end up spelling on the phone ORCA (like 555-ORCA) and they do this MASSIVE media blitz across several states.

people are REALY stupid, and they don't pay close attention to those types of ads, so when they start flooding the phone lines they dial 555-o (as in "operator")RCA which is my friend's home number.

they got flooded with hundreds of calls (esp. when the park would be doing some kind of promotion or event).


she said the only part that was remotly amusing was the odd late nite drunk who would call say "i waaaana see the *hic* whales, i godda bet i can ride the waaaaaahale, can i come ride the wwwwhale????"



talking of caller i.d.-another friend got it when it first came out, but also blocked her number so noone could use it on her. she detested prank and obscene phone calls to death so she was thrilled when she got it b/c she would write down the numbers of any inappropriate calls she got-then call back and say (depending on weather it was an adult or juvinile) "does your wife (or mother) know you do this?, wells she will now-i've got your phone number and i'm going to call back sometime in the next 2 weeks, it may be during the day it may be during the night you can keep guessing-and i'll be telling her exactly what you said to me"

she ended up with the pervs and kids blubbering on the phone to her, begging her not to call again, swearing they would never bother her or anyone else