My girls are at school from 8:00am. I deliver them to the school gates.
At 9:45 or thereabouts we received a phone call on our house phone. This voice, a rough person of low education, started shouting above the sound of a young girl screaming for help in the background. (in Spanish, of course)
This voice claimed to have kidnapped one of our children and was going to do unmentionable things if we didn't transfer a sum of money immediately.
As it happens, both girls are home sick today. But can you imagine how that call would have felt if they had not been here? Even then I had to walk into their bedrooms and make sure I could actually see them.
I wondered briefly if it was too early for a whisky. I decided it wasn't.
What kind of sick b****** does this stuff? Apparently three other houses near us received similar calls on their landlines.
So, somehow it is related to the area where we live, not where our children go to school, to the house rather than one of its occupants, and someone somewhere has got hold of a list of home numbers and addresses.
There is no directory enquiries here, people rarely give out their home numbers in the normal course of things, everyone uses mobiles, in fact its probably only the utilities who have name / address / home phone and they would have no idea whether or nto there were children in the house.
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I guess its pointless getting the Carabineros involved.
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What a horrible experience Mark
How hard is it to get a change of number there?
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>>How hard is it to get a change of number there?
Hard. And a real problem as all police, Govt. IDs, documents and utility stuff will need changing.
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They were fast; two cars and a van of armed police outside the house within 10 minutes.
However, they pointed out that nasty though this was the resultant crime was little more than harassment.
They say they will attempt to track the people down. The Carabineros may not be fast, but they are pretty relentless so we shall see.
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Earthquakes, murderous 4x4 drivers, kidnap scammers...........you sure you don't want to come back to Reading, NF?
Blimey.
Mind you, the second of that list are quite common here too.
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I can imagine just how scary that was, and how much more so had they been at school today.
Pat
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I start getting worried when one of mine doesn't return a call within the hour!
I would have gone spare!
Glad all is well!
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To be honest after all is said and done its only amounted to little more than a crank call.
But its a few seconds of hell. Talking about getting hit where it hurts most. Stupid how long it took me to think "Here, hold on a minute, they're both asleep upstairs, they didn't go to school!!".
I cannot imagine what on earth a real kidnap / lost child situation must feel like. I wonder how people get through it.
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Traumatic responses override common sense...brain kicks into overdrive, dealing with the here and now - almost like a "battle computer" - everything else is partitioned off whilst it deals with a current threat. I was in a situation like that 6 years ago when I found my first wife....brain is an amazing but of kit....but it needs maintaining...!
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Similar for us last December with my mother in law.
I hope you're doing well Rob/RP. :-)
But Mark, what a nightmare you had earlier! No idea how to deal with that sort of call. You're probably one of the ones on here that had life experiences meaning you can handle it better than most.
Last edited by: rtj70 on Mon 19 Oct 15 at 22:54
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Daughters and granddaughters are a great and constant worry. I'm entirely sympathetic with FMR and really think poorly of the practical jokers. What a filthy trick to play on someone.
Perhaps FMR you even twigged subliminally that the little girl's screams weren't from one of yours. But a grandad prone to panic innit?
So glad they are all right really.
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A worrying phone call.... - Zero
