Crank callers beware
Tyler has been such a great helper around the house doing chores, etc…the past few weeks, that I decided he deserves a one-on-one date with Mommy. For his reward, we went to see “Night at the Museum” on Saturday afternoon.
As I mentioned here how I’m not a sucker fan of buying snacks at the movie theaters. You can purchase the same box of gummi bears or bigger for half the price at a convenient store. All you’d need is a big purse to sneak bring it into the theater, along with your water bottle (which is like $3 freaking 50 cents at the movies PER BOTTLE!) Hey, don’t roll your eyes at me, I bet some of you do the same thing too!!
We really enjoyed the movie, I think I laughed louder than all the small/big kids in the theater. I’m a big fan of Ben Stiller and Robin Williams, so it was all worth it, all $21 for a matinee date! And my date was exceptionally cute as well!
But this post is not all about our trip to the movies. As I was preparing dinner that night, we received four prank calls from the same person/number. (Sure, I enjoyed a few episodes of Bart Simpson doing his prank calls on the show but it’s not funny in real life at all). How do we know this? Caller ID my friend! It’s a great freaking tool, and let me demonstrate its usefulness.
After two calls of kids giggling and making silly remarks over the phone, I just had enough. So, I called them back, which they were probably too stupid to realize that we had caller ID, and they did pick up the phone but wouldn’t respond. I threatened loudly that if they don’t stop I’m going to call the police on them and click.
Well, they certainly didn’t heed my warning, and called us back the third and fourth time. Now, if you know me through this blog…you’d get a sense that I don’t take things lying down easily and nobody, and I mean nobody messes with me and my family. But besides that, I’m as lovable as your kids’ favorite stuffed animal, really!
Since we are tax paying citizens, I enlisted the help of our local men/women in blues. Yup, that’s right! I called the police and got this really nice Sergeant who said he wouldn’t mind calling the pranksters to set them straight.
I was surprised that he volunteered to do so, I just thought I’d get the brush off but I assume maybe in this uncertain times of terrorists etc, they don’t take things like such lightly (not that this was a terrorist act or anything, but you get the gist). He even said that if we still get prank calls that we can actually file criminal charges. Whoa, let’s hope it doesn’t escalate to that.
The nice Sergeant called me back to let me know that he left a message on their voice mail and:
1) “the kids might get the message, erase it before their parents find out and wouldn’t do it again
or
2) their parents will retrieve the message and will deal with them later.”
I was more than grateful that he actually did what he said. I won’t forget you when fund raising time comes around, officer!!
Needless to say, the phone stopped ringing after that. I was more than satisfied with myself, but you should have seen the look on the hubbie’s face. He told the kids “better not mess with Mommy, kids!” Hee hee.
But in all seriousness, what would you have done if you were in my shoes? Would you have taken the same approach as I did or just let the pranksters have a ball and do nothing?
By the way, has anyone canceled their telephone land line altogether and use the cell phone exclusively? If so, do you recommend it? And yeah, we’ll definitely putting our phone number on the unlisted list soon.
Tyler has been such a great helper around the house doing chores, etc…the past few weeks, that I decided he deserves a one-on-one date with Mommy. For his reward, we went to see “Night at the Museum” on Saturday afternoon.
As I mentioned here how I’m not a sucker fan of buying snacks at the movie theaters. You can purchase the same box of gummi bears or bigger for half the price at a convenient store. All you’d need is a big purse to sneak bring it into the theater, along with your water bottle (which is like $3 freaking 50 cents at the movies PER BOTTLE!) Hey, don’t roll your eyes at me, I bet some of you do the same thing too!!
We really enjoyed the movie, I think I laughed louder than all the small/big kids in the theater. I’m a big fan of Ben Stiller and Robin Williams, so it was all worth it, all $21 for a matinee date! And my date was exceptionally cute as well!
But this post is not all about our trip to the movies. As I was preparing dinner that night, we received four prank calls from the same person/number. (Sure, I enjoyed a few episodes of Bart Simpson doing his prank calls on the show but it’s not funny in real life at all). How do we know this? Caller ID my friend! It’s a great freaking tool, and let me demonstrate its usefulness.
After two calls of kids giggling and making silly remarks over the phone, I just had enough. So, I called them back, which they were probably too stupid to realize that we had caller ID, and they did pick up the phone but wouldn’t respond. I threatened loudly that if they don’t stop I’m going to call the police on them and click.
Well, they certainly didn’t heed my warning, and called us back the third and fourth time. Now, if you know me through this blog…you’d get a sense that I don’t take things lying down easily and nobody, and I mean nobody messes with me and my family. But besides that, I’m as lovable as your kids’ favorite stuffed animal, really!
Since we are tax paying citizens, I enlisted the help of our local men/women in blues. Yup, that’s right! I called the police and got this really nice Sergeant who said he wouldn’t mind calling the pranksters to set them straight.
I was surprised that he volunteered to do so, I just thought I’d get the brush off but I assume maybe in this uncertain times of terrorists etc, they don’t take things like such lightly (not that this was a terrorist act or anything, but you get the gist). He even said that if we still get prank calls that we can actually file criminal charges. Whoa, let’s hope it doesn’t escalate to that.
The nice Sergeant called me back to let me know that he left a message on their voice mail and:
1) “the kids might get the message, erase it before their parents find out and wouldn’t do it again
or
2) their parents will retrieve the message and will deal with them later.”
I was more than grateful that he actually did what he said. I won’t forget you when fund raising time comes around, officer!!
Needless to say, the phone stopped ringing after that. I was more than satisfied with myself, but you should have seen the look on the hubbie’s face. He told the kids “better not mess with Mommy, kids!” Hee hee.
But in all seriousness, what would you have done if you were in my shoes? Would you have taken the same approach as I did or just let the pranksters have a ball and do nothing?
By the way, has anyone canceled their telephone land line altogether and use the cell phone exclusively? If so, do you recommend it? And yeah, we’ll definitely putting our phone number on the unlisted list soon.
I would do the exact same thing save for the police report. What I would do is call them up and then hang the phone. What happens is when they answer and you never put down the phone, they can no longer use the phone. Sweet revenge.
My family has started going 100% cell only. However we are still on landline usage.
We had prank callers here once. A young lad (8-11sh) called one Christmas season and whispered, ‘f@#@ you.’ (repeat, spin cycle and repeat again)
I was having one of my better moments, when my brain cells were still on a first name basis and the conversation went something like:
‘f— you!’
‘what? hello?’
‘f— you!’
‘hello? Hello?’
‘F— YOU!’
‘hello? is anybody there? hello? Hellooooo!’
‘hang up the phone?’
‘Hello? Anybody there? Hello?’
‘i said, Hang.Up.The.Phone!’
‘Hello? Hello?’
click
I am as impressed as heck that you did that! I don’t know that I would have thought about doing that. But it is smart and definitely something I will next time this becomes an issue!
My BIL is a police officer so I would have done the same thing. The pranksters do it because they keep getting away with it. I’m very proud of you for putting an end to it!
BTW, you should see how big my “movie purse” is! LOL!
GO YOU!
I think that is awesome. I probably would have called the phone company and reported it.
For some reason I feel the need to have a landline– there are just some people I don’t want calling my cell phone.
I love that you took care of business. I’m not sure what I would have done- perhaps call back at different times of day until I caught them or their parents. I certainly wouldn’t sit back and be a victim! Last time they pick on me!
In the past, JP and I have smuggled an entire pizza into the movie theater. We’re pretty handy with a coat draped over the arm.
Good for you!
Hmmm… I don’t think I wouldn’ve even thought to call the police and if I did my dear hubby would probably tell me not to bother because they won’t do anything. I did call the police one time for a crying dog at 5am (in the spring so the windows were open) and they came to address the situation.
Anywho… good for you & awesome that the officer actually did that.
I didn’t know they would call for you??? I would have done the same thing.
We got a call like that a few months ago, I think the kids were pretty young because I freaked them out…
Ad for becoming unlisted, we were for years, and then this year we appeared on the phone book. When I contact ATT they said we needed to pay them to become unlisted!! Can you believe that?
We would break from the landline, but we have DSL….
What a wonderful movie date! I always have a little food with me, and I have to see the movie food prices.
I have a technique for annoying telemarketers too (the ones that either ignore or can get around the do-not-call lists). If they won’t take a polite “no thank you” and insist on talking, I give them the entire sales pitch on whatever charity I’m currently promoting. It’s probably a better use of time just to hang up, but it’s sort of entertaining.
Dennis~ That was pretty funny! It sort of reminded me of “who’s on first”, I said sort of.
Twisted Cinderella~ Can you see me patting myself in the back with your compliment?!
KC~ A whole pizza? I mean a whole large pizza? Now that is talent!
I ashamedly have to admit we’ve snuck food in a few times. Once hubby snuck in two Starbucks (hey, we just bought them and found they didn’t allow them, wasn’t about to throw those out!!!)we’ve snuck in McDonalds, and many a time (in my much, much younger days) me and my friends used to sneak in wine coolers! So funny/embarassing when one was accidently dropped and we hear this loud clanking noise as it went rolling down the theater. YIKES! We’ve since found a theater that doesn’t mind you bringing in stuff. Wasn’t that a great movie? We all enjoyed it very much. About the cranking, I think you did the right thing.
Watch out for WAYA!
Oh, The Joys~ I have been saying that about my wife since I met her
Right on, Betty. I’d totally have done the same thing… actually, I probably wouldn’t have done the callback. I’m such the non-confrontational type. But definitely would’ve given the police a call.
You go, girl!
Hahaha…was it that long ago that we were all innocent prank callers? Now, we’re all parents and realize that there’s really nothing more annoying in the world. Fear not, Betty. You did the right thing! We once called the fuzz too about some prank calls and they totally took care of it.
As for the phone, we didn’t completely get rid of our landline. However, we did sign up for Vonage. Although it was a pain in the ass to set up and still goes out sporadically, it’s cheap. $14/month. Heck, I was paying at least that much in taxes on my old land line.
Wow you gave me a bright spot tonight. That cracked me up. Good call on that one. I don’t know if I’d have had the nerve to do that but you obviously had it work out well. Ha! Bet you scared the you-know-what out of them.
You crack me up! I probably would have blocked their number, you can do that by hitting * something on your phone, can’t remember what number you hit. Anyway, you go girl, you taught them! I hope the little buggers get in some trouble with their parental units. And we have had an unlisted number for years, I would highly recommend it.
We ALWAYS sneak snacks into the movie. And we seen “night at the museum” too and LOVED it. That was the best family movie. I hear they are making a Shrek 3, and a Toy Story 3 and I am way more excited than the kids are.
Good for you for taking Tyler to the movies as a treat. He will remember that forever and always.