Another Odd Telephone Happening

The phone rings, you pick up, say hello, no reply, you hear 2 other people having a conversation. You are intrigued albeit slightly confused. They can't seem to hear you.

You sit down in wonder and listen. You don't recognise either voice. One is a man, the other a woman. They don't seem to be having a phone conversation. It sounds like they are in the same room. You can hear some of what they say. Then you feel like an eavesdropper. Guilt overcomes your curiousity and you hang up.

You immediately pick up the receiver again to call a friend and tell them what just happened. But the couple are still there. You hang up again. They are still there. You eventually realise that you cannot end the "call".
You leave down the receiver beside the phone. You can hear their voices at the other end. You leave the room and return every few minutes until you hear the dialling tone. They're gone.

Now what was all that about?

I have no clue. How about a defect switch at the telco? Your neighbor receive a call but some voltage leak to your phone, you pick up and hear their conversation? I don't know if that's even possible, modern switches are pretty fail safe, but some telcos are still using crappy equipment, so you never know.

Sounds like you were listening to a baby monitor.
I've heard of this happening before. You should be able to change the channel on your cordless phone and everything will be back to normal.

I don't have a cordless phone. And at the time there was nobody on the road with young kids, so probably no baby monitor. It sounded like an elderly couple.

Can I also mention that this happened twice? A second time about 6 years later.

The last time this occured it turned out to be someones mobile phone, in their pocket, being sat on/pressed against and accidentaly "auto dialling" a random number from the phone book. That could well be the case here.

This was before 1999. Mobiles weren't widely available then. Even if it was the case, why couldn't I hang up on them?

Yossarian, you are feeling that this was a supernatural event?

Originally posted by Yossarian
This was before 1999. Mobiles weren't widely available then. Even if it was the case, why couldn't I hang up on them?

If they don't put their end of the line down the connection stays open. And mobiles were widely available in 99 where I live, so it seemed reasonable enough.

Umbrax, that make sense! I didn't think of wireless phone.

With my radio scanner I can pick up analog 40MHz baby monitors. Wireless phones in 2.4GHz or 5.8GHz are mostly digital. Phone and baby monitor would have to share the same protocol, unlikely. With some exceptions, cheaper phones are transmitting analog signal in 900MHz. Totally possible to accidentally pick a baby monitor through those wireless phones.

Originally posted by chebob


If they don't put their end of the line down the connection stays open. And mobiles were widely available in 99 where I live, so it seemed reasonable enough.

Fair enough I suppose. But it was BEFORE 1999. Somewhere between '96 and '98.

I still can't accept that theory though. As I mentioned, I didn't recognise either of the voices. I don't know of any elderly couple who would have our house number on auto dial on their mobile.

And if I don't know them, why would they have the house number?
Isn't auto dial reserved for most frequently dialled numbers?

Originally posted by Yossarian


Fair enough I suppose. But it was BEFORE 1999. Somewhere between '96 and '98.

I still can't accept that theory though. As I mentioned, I didn't recognise either of the voices. I don't know of any elderly couple who would have our house number on auto dial on their mobile.

And if I don't know them, why would they have the house number?
Isn't auto dial reserved for most frequently dialled numbers?

Well I thought It was worth suggesting as it had already happened to me, but if it isn't the case here thats fine.

I've had my share of phone mysteries, like the one a few months back where my phone managed to order a chinese by itself (the chinese restaraunt uses caller ID to find the adress after you've had it delivered once), which means either something spooky happened, or someone went out of their way to "fake" a phone number and use it to order food. Which would be odd to say the least.

Thanks for the suggestion Chebob.

Umbrax, no I don't consider it "supernatural". Just odd.

And you mentioned the wireless connection? I didn't quite get that. You mean I would have a wireless phone?

Originally posted by chebob
I've had my share of phone mysteries, like the one a few months back where my phone managed to order a chinese by itself (the chinese restaraunt uses caller ID to find the adress after you've had it delivered once), which means either something spooky happened, or someone went out of their way to "fake" a phone number and use it to order food. Which would be odd to say the least.

There's Asterisk for Linux, a free PBX software that can fake caller ID. But I agree, that would be alot of trouble just to order chinese food.

Originally posted by Yossarian
You mean I would have a wireless phone?

Well, do you? We can't really answer that.

Ive already pointed out that I dont have a wireless connection, and never had.