Thread: What Is the Most Irritating Phone Calls/SMS You Ever Received?

What is the creepiest phone call or voice message you've ever received?

I got a message saying “I wouldn't drive tomorrow morning...lest you be blown to bits.” It had been sent the previous day, but I was reading it in the morning. Just as I got that message, I heard my wife starting the car outside. It did not blow up.

It was an email threat, the third email I had received from that person. The Berkeley Police politely looked at it, and told me there was no way to trace it. So I asked my class if there were any hackers who might do better. (At that time I was teaching the class for physics majors and engineers.) After class, about six students came up to help. Indeed, they were able to trace the email, and I got the name of a registered student. I gave it to the police; they went to his apartment, he confessed, and he was arrested.

I asked to meet with him, and against the strong advice of the police I did. I spoke to him, and learned that he did it because he thought I might be “vulnerable” (actually, because of my novel about Jesus!). He seemed to feel lost in the world, and doing things like that made him feel that he had some power over others.

I asked him whom else he had threatened (remarkably, the police had not done that!), and he named another student, and then added, “and President Clinton.” So I told the police, and they contacted the other student, and the US Secret Service. The Secret Service came to investigate, and the perpetrator will be watched by them for the rest of his life. I did not press charges, and he did not go to prison.

—-note added (after this answer drew much interest on Quora)—

The incident happened in December 1996. I just dug out the old messages. It turns out that the worst threat was made by email. His “explanation” for the threat was my novel The Sins of Jesus (now available on Amazon Kindle). He signed the emails Haas Reject. (Haas is a business school at Berkeley; Physics H7B was the physics course I was teaching at the time.) Here are his emails:

First email from Hass Reject: “ARE YOU AN ATHEIST, DR MULLER? WHAT KIND OF BLASPHEMY IS THIS???”

Second email from Haas Reject: “HEY DICK, DON'T DARE YOU CHANGE THE SUBJECT! ANSWER MY QUESTION ON UCB.CLASS.PHYSICS7B! ARE YOU AN ATHEIST OR NOT? YES OR NO? FAILURE TO ANSWER AS SPECIFIED WILL LEAD TO DISASTROUS CONSEQUENCES! GOT THAT?”

Third email from Haas Reject: “I wouldn't drive tomorrow morning...lest you be blown to bits… ****er”

Forgive the inclusion of the expletive, but that is what he wrote.

These days the emails might be considered “hate mail” and they would draw attention from both the university and the police and even newspapers. But at the time it was only a death threat, not as serious as hate mail.

Mr. Haas Reject made the mistake of using a campus computer. Not only that, but when he signed in to use it, he used his true name. We are fortunate that many people who break the law or otherwise try to do harm are so stupid.

The university put the case to a student disciplinary council. In punishment for what he had done, they took away his campus computer privileges for a semester. I can’t make sense of that, except by thinking that they interpreted his threats as a practical joke, with no intention of doing real harm. I suspect he may be on the US government no-fly list.

Source: QUORA

The most annoying calls are from companies that offer to buy their products. They are very intrusive and strongly urge you to buy their product. I changed my number to VoIP because of them, so that no one could call me, and I was tired of them as it was. I think everyone should get one for convenience and privacy.