Strange (Threatening?) Message left on our answering machine.

This kind of brings me to another question, we have been thinking about moving into a house anyway, how many think a closed circuit camera system looking at both front and back doors/windows are useful. Would this addition just make the police think I was running a crack house or attract the wrong attention? (Perhaps watching too much TV)

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I have an ex-girlfriend that had issues with a stalkerish former boyfriend while her and I were dating. She lived in the lower level of a house, only one way in. Installed CCTV at the urging of her father and I. We put it up above the exterior light that was next to the door. At night it was about impossible to see (you'd be looking into the light) and during the day, well it was about as unobtrosive as it could be under an overhang, high and to the side. Just not something most people will look for or notice. There were a couple times it came in handy too, if nothing else as a deterrent (it was made known to the trouble maker that if he came over he wasn't allowed in, and anything he said or did would be recorded and used against him).

By the way, the telephone company FOR FACT, has the technology to tell you with 100% certainty the point of origin.

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+1!

Report this to the cops by all means, with the tape. They need to know this, and if they persue it they will be able to figure out the point of origin and (hopefully) at least inform you who you need to watch out for.

The person tried to mask their voice, and issued a threat. From the way I understand it, most child abductions are done by family or close friends - people you know. The hiding of the voice is, in my opinion, supportive of this possibility. Keep that in mind!

(Any crazy ex-girlfriends or female friends/acquaintances who have had a miscarriage or child die would, IMO, be prime suspects.)

It has been my experience that a serious criminal does not telegraph his/her intentions.

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That doesn't account for crazy people, though. And when it involves the kidnapping of a child - someone who wants one, likely a female - anything about "serious" or "reasonable" goes right out the window, and the closest thing to "serious" is "seriously crazy or deranged".

I'd guess you're being terrorized by someone you peed off or someone just has a sick sense of humor.

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Either way, the person is dangerous. I'd say it's more likely the person is sick and has thought of the kidnapping, and may be acting out, testing the waters in an attempt to see if they can get away with it.

I tended to agree with Biker about someone serious about it probably would not have said they planned to do it. But what kept me second guessing that is the seemingly rather large number of crazies are out there that do this kind of junk.

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Don't second guess someone's sanity. If someone says they're going to do something crazy that harms you, you've got to assume they're going to do so and make the appropriate preparations to defend and protect yourself, and to try to stop them (with the help of the police) before they're able to act.

I had a girlfriend for the first half of my freshman year of college who I dumped around spring break. I then transfered to a different school the distance of half the country away. Two years later I started receiving a series of abusive harassing and threatening emails and IMs, and noticing some linguistic similarities in the typing, I asked around with people I still was in contact with the school to find out it was her. She'd gotten into another relationship almost right after we broke up, and we'd cut off all contact with each other shortly after the break-up, so there was no reason to suspect she'd do something like this - other than the fact that, indeed, she was as crazy as a glue odor tester (which was, of course, the reason for the break up). So, don't under-estimate past crazies.

So, don't under-estimate past crazies.

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I had a g/f that is crazy as a loon. She ended up in the mental hospital, and used the common phone to call me twice. The first time she talked really wierd. I went home and traced the caller id and found that it was from a mental hospital. The next day she called again and started sounding vaguley threatning. I had let the voice mail take that call...

We went to immediate high alert. I still fear her, especially as she knows where I live and she now goes to the same college that I go to. What she doesn't know is that I have an 870 under my backseat, and a crowbar in my backpack.

I'd be worried if she found out about any future g/fs. And I worry for my family.

The telephone company knows what number the call originated from (please note this information is not the caller id field and is accurate where caller ID might not be) and will turn it over to the police.

This is not the type of prank the police take lightly, they did not ask if your refrigerator was running. I'm very much a tend your own business type, but this message would be escalated to the authorities in my household. I think it would be prudent in yours also.

jeepmor

I would take it seriously even though it sounds like a prank. However, if the phone company can trace the call, you can have it prosecuted under one of the new Terrorism laws because that's what this sounds like. I'm sure all the other guys already mentioned all the other stuff like dogs and alarms and tracing devices. Offend anyone (psychotic) lately?

I might be off about the mention of a retroactive phone trace suggestion. Not possible here (NC) even if the police are involved, simply not recorded. Maybe other phone companies do it but mine laughed when I asked. They said you can have them trace calls for a week or two and you have to call directly after the call in question to get the number, if you wait, no dice.

Caller ID is a lot better unless they block the call. Don't forget, if you do happen to get the number, google it (I know that's 2 plugs for google in one thread ). Sometimes it will pull up the name and address. Also try www.(phone number with area code no dashes).com Sometimes that used to work. Haven't tried it in awhile though. Also there's switchboard.com

Good luck

DO NOT under any circumstances minimize the threat to a child. Get the police involved, copy everything, and keep a log of events and conversations. Your child has been threatened. Until you know who it was you must assume the threat is right her and right now. You do not want to dismiss the threats only to wake up to a kidnapped or worse child.

I might be off about the mention of a retroactive phone trace suggestion. Not possible here (NC) even if the police are involved, simply not recorded. Maybe other phone companies do it but mine laughed when I asked.

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I certainly can't claim to be a phone company guru, but I do work for one and I'm not entirely sure I'm buying their claim. Without getting too boring the telephone system used to work with in band signaling, there were tones sent over the voice line. Modern telephone systems (we're talking 70's-80s) have moved to a format where all the magic that makes the calls work happens on a different channel for security. The system we use for this is called SS7. One of the many things transmitted through this signaling system is called the ANI. It is not the caller ID field and it is not blockable by the user. It should be the billing number of the calling party. Among other things like call routing, its also used from records for billing. We're a small phone company so we don't have the data the same size as larger ones (of course they have massive data centers) but all the telephone calls that have been through our phone switches for the last few years leave a record with things like the timestamp, dialed number (DNIS), calling number (ANI). I can fit these years of records on a couple DVDs. The ANI even contains data that tells you if the call came from a cell phone, hotel phone, prison phone, pay phone, etc. But you might say soybomb, your little company can store all that data, how is some big phone company supposed to? Luckily they are quite massive and have money. For example ATT has a database system they call hawkeye that they use for their call detail records (thats what we call these). Hawkeye is said to have 312 terabytes of data and 1.88 trillion records.

Anyway the short of it is any telephone company should be able to dig into their CDR's and look for the ANI to find out who originated the call. Hopefully someone will find this helpful sometime

Short of it: if they do not know who called whom, and from where he did it, at what time and for which duration, the phone company will not be able to properly bill their customers. In other words, someone, somewhere, has the record and, at the very least, they'll be able to tell you what the other person's carrier is. But at that point the police should be involved.

It's very simple to solve the problem. Dial 0, tell the operator what day you had a threatening call on, and you want her to do a save a trace of the numbers that called you. Then call your local police, let them know that the phone company has the info to give them (they won't give it to you only LE)

Then the police can very simply check the number that called, and verify the message and if it was threatening.

My guess is it's probably just a mistake, because if the person meant to threaten you in this way it would be someone you know, and are aware that has it out for you (i would think) since they seemed to have "guessed" that you had children, and you didn't recognize the voice, so this seems to suggest it's not even a message for you, and you couldn't understand it, so it's very easy to hear a message mean one thing, when another set of words entirely was said.

But if your worried take the steps above, it's the simple way to find out.

"I'm gonna get your child", "I'm gonna be a while" .... just one example of what can sound different to you

Sounds more like a wrong number than a threat or a prank.

Thanks for your expertise and intense explanation soybomb. You da man. I'm glad I know that now. I also appreciate your modesty in the beginning of your post which is followed by a detailed explanation as to why my phone co.'s answer was BS. Very cool. I should learn never to listen to the first person I get on the phone no matter who I'm calling. It's basically their job to say "No you can't have whatever it is you're looking for". Especially if it makes work for them or costs the Company money.

Real or not, threatening kids is NOT acceptable. LE gets paid to deal with this sort of thing.

ARperson,

Have you come up with anything to update yet? I think I speak for a number of us when I say that I'm really concerned.

If you don't mind,I'll post what happened back about 1996/1997:
We lived with our friends for a few years,prior to the dates.
One of the friends' daughters got pregnant, had a girl.Yeah, the moron lived there,too.(A real fruitcake:threatened foster parents when he was under 18.
Got into drugs,etc)
The breakup was he was going to take this baby girl.My POJ (Piece Of Junk)
Auto Ordnanace was kept loaded.She was the most protected girl around.
He never tried to take her.He just didn't have enough guts to do it.
Now, that girl is about 12-13 Y/O. Very pretty,I might add.
Her and her mother (married) is now living elsewhere.