covert@covert.enet.dec.com (John R. Covert) (03/26/91)
> If these harrasing telephone calls are considered so unimportant > by telco and the police, perhaps one should forward the calls to them > since they don't think it is a problem. I once did just that. As I forwarded the calls, I told the police dispatcher that I was having trouble with repeated annoyance calls from a bunch of kids. I told them that I didn't expect them to take messages for any legitimate calls, and that if anyone asked for me by name to just tell them to call back a little later. An hour later, I cancelled the call forwarding, after the kids had been sufficiently scared off. It solved the problem for good. If you think that Caller ID will help with annoyance calls, remember that it identifies NOT the person at the other end, and not even the LOCATION at the other end, but rather the PHONE NUMBER at the other end. A friend of mine was sitting at home one evening and noticed that the line status LED on one of her two-line phones was turning on and off, although no one else was using the phone. When she picked up the phone, there was an obscene call in progress. She called the police from another line, and just as they pulled up to investigate, a car parked at the curb drove away. Not initially suspecting the driver of the car, the police didn't follow him or even note his plate number, but they found a trail of two conductor cable running up to the drop going into her house, which the perv had spliced into in order to make his obscene calls from a place where he couldn't have been traced. So don't go shoot out the windows of the house with the phone number that showed up on your display the last time you got an annoyance call. If Caller ID is available in your area, then Call Trace is, as well, and you can use that when needed for a one-time charge instead of a monthly fee. And it displays blocked numbers as well, providing time-stamped documentation that a call was made to your number, documentation that is admissable as evidence in court, unlike any information you would get from your Caller ID display. john