A really strange phone call

Yesterday I was away from my home for most of the day. When I came in early this morning at 12:30 AM I saw I had 3 new messages on my answering machine. So I played them. The first message was at about 2 PM yesterday afternoon from a friend. The second one was bizzare and came at 5:15 PM.

Someone said "Hi John" (male voice I did not recognize) and then this really loud noise came on. It sounded like a loud buzzing, like machinery or, my first impression, like crickets. Millions of them. The caller hung up, and picked up the phone again a second or two later, and I heard that same loud noise again. He then hung up again and then picked up again in the same manner, and again I heard the loud noise, but this time I also heard the phone being dialed again.

I get the impression he hit redial, as the numbers were punched very fast as when you press redial or press a pre-programmed number.

There were ten tones, indicating that this was a long distance caller. Besides the unusual noise, it is strange that my answering machine did not disconnect when he hung up, as it usually does immedietely when I get a call and the caller hangs up.

Normally, I would not think twice about this. I get prank phone calls from time to time, and I dont give them any attention. Keep in mind, that this whole episode was message number two on my answering machine.

The third message came at 6:30 PM. It was a call from Midnight Mutilator. I will describe the message as it is recorded. MM asked me a question and asked me to call him back when I got a chance. He then hung up. However once again, the machine did not disconnect, instead I heard a phone ringing on my answering machine!

Then I heard someone answer and say "Hello?" It was MM! MM got no response, and hung up, end of message.

Now, you could chalk this all up to bad phone service and unusual coincidences except for one thing. I saw MM today, and he remembers the phone ringing and answering it (right after he left the message on my machine), and hearing no one on the other end of the phone, he hung up. However, the call came in on his second phone line, a completely different phone number than the one he had just called me from!!!

MM also has caller id, which shows you who is calling you before you pick up the phone. He said the id showed up as "anonomous". But my phone is not blocked or anything, if I call someone with caller id, my name and phone number will show up.

It is really strange. It is almost as if the person who called me on the second message somehow programmed my answering machine to trace MM's call and call him back. Not just trace, but trace to a second phone line in his house. As I said, MM states he called me from phone A, and then phone B rang immedietely after he hung up phone A. Phone A and B are totally different lines, numbers etc..

I dont think though, that such a thing is possible (programming my answering machine).


Just thought I'd share.

What you're describing is possible by controlling the telco switching equipment. MM's dual line is coded as such in the telco switch (master control system for all calls), as is the mechanism that can keep your line live when the other person hangs up.

Eight years ago, I was an on-site engineer for such equipment built by Rockwell International (starting 8 years before that!). Poorly launched monitoring by system rookies can cause odd effects if you don't know what you're doing. I've seen entire airline reservation call-centers go down by one person checking a seemingly unrelated trunk line.

There is cause for concern given the events you describe. I wouldn't kid you about this.

So are you saying that perhaps someone with some technical knowledge of the systems you are describing could be, perhaps, doing this just to mess with my mind? Maybe thinking I am a paranoid person given the substance of my web site and message board?

I would have to say that the fact that the second caller called me by name would rule out an accident by a careless technician.

You said I should be concerned about this, may I ask why? Do you think that there is perhaps some real malicious intent here? I thought that perhaps someone may have been trying to access my computer through my phone line, but I gather you do not think that is the case.

Yes I can back up Mr. One Sac on everything he said. When I went over his house I listened to the tape, and machinery like sound became recorded. It was very loud and mysterious; I have no explanation for it.

Intresting, One Sac, if its no hassle see if you can get that recording on the puter.
Convert to MP3, upload to your site.
If its no hassle...

Yeah, I definitely intend to do that. I am going to see about getting a microphone tommorow for the computer, and upload it that way. Unless there is someway to connect the answering machine to the computer with the phone line, but even if I knew that could work, I dont think I have the software to make an mp3.

But if I get a mic, it should come with software to record, even if only in real player or something. Right? I really dont know anything about recording sound from my answering machine to the computer, I am guessing a microphone would be the best way...

yay!
Ok, I'll try `n help...

Ok, I'm gonna try and find some good software so you can download it and convert. Reason being that a 10mb+ wav file can be around 3mb or less MP3 file.
Ok you can click here and download this program I just came across.
Still downloading it now...
30% done.... HOORA! Look at that 2.97kb a second GO!!!
(its a 2.50mb file).
When I DL it I'll get back to ya... im gonna need a cup of coffee... this could take a while.

To record it as a wav, just open up Sound Recorder.
Click Start > Accessories > Entertainment > Sound Recorder.
That`ll make it .wav.

ok, yep that program is real simple.
Install, yada yada yada... then click the "WAV to MP3" tab, then hit OPEN and thats it... oh, then convert!

When its done it'll open up the folder with the ready MP3...

When you buy a mic, they don't really give you any software, seeing as any mic will do.

Man, wish we could post images, could'a made things much more simple...

Tell us how it goes One Sac.

Excellent. I should be able to do it. Thanks. Too bad I cant just plug my telephone into the computer and record the sound through the mouthpiece.

William...

Using the telco switch to observe one or two customers takes deliberate, and pre-arranged consideration on the part of the operator. Accidental results such as you described are unlikely, if not almost impossible.

You know I've never been a paranoid person, but this is indeed an odd sounding event. I would very much like to hear the sound you heard. Might you say it sounded digital? As if you played a game CD-ROM in an audio CD player?

True, maybe the person was on a mobile, getting bad reception?
I guess we'll have to wait and see what we can collectively make of it.

Listen to this...some guy from telephonics.com (A huge Communications company) came to my site looking for my Camp Hero section!!!! He spent 10 minutes going through my 3rd Investigation report. Is this messed up or what??

I traced that telephoics.com IP and look where I traced it too...

5 nasa-snv (134.55.208.33) 4 ms 3 ms 4 ms

6 5.251.106.207.in-addr.arpa (207.106.251.5) 12.036 ms 5.975 ms 5.794 ms

BTW the IP # is 12.3.136.209

william, it could be that someone is f*cking with you, everybody can look up your name and phone number via your website, I got your name, address and phone number too, And i got MM's info too.
It's very, VERY easy to obtain that information....

But this whole thing is messed up, I mean the phone call...then someone comes to my site from a major communications company searching for my exact Camp Hero section�and then my traces...You guys will be able to listen to the phone call a little later....hopefully if William can get it onto the computer some how..

William One Sac

That was a strange tale indeed.

I don't want to freek you out , but this thread has already had 123 views
And chances are your man was one of them. !

I managed to make a crude copy of the answering machine messages. However, be forewarned, the quality sucks. Also, the page is probably over a meg, as I have not had time yet to convert them to an mp3. They are in wav format. So the page may take a while to load (sorry). But you get the jyst of the messages by listening to them.

See the new recordings on page 2 of this thread.


With some advice from Kano, I should be able to make clean copies of the message tommorow.

Dosen't work William, the play button is greyed out

Thats why I mentioned the page was over a meg. It takes a while to load. I just checked again, and it worked just fine.

OK, yea your right it works, but had to refresh the page, didn't work the first time.

sounds like a fax machine or internet connection. Cell phones do pick up other phone lines. I don't know why MM was dialed, sometimes beeps can cause a redial.