Wrong numbers - they happen, but why do people keep calling the wrong number over and over again? In any case, there have been some bonkers misdials out there. The joys of landlines...
Justanotherguy45 asked: What's the weirdest wrong number call you've gotten?
Submissions have been edited for clarity, context, and profanity.
10. This is surprisingly dark.
We had this woman call us, you could tell by the sound of her voice she was very old, I can't remember who she asked for, but when we told her she had the wrong number, she would profusely apologize and hung up.
The thing of it is, it was not a one time only thing. I guess due to her age, she got to where she would always call us, apologize every time she got the wrong number, but she eventually got to the point of asking how we were and would talk a little before hanging up. When I was in high school, I found out one of the three guidance counselors had a very similar number, it was just one digit off. I wondered if she was trying to reach her.
It was on our landline. When we got rid of it, I was actually kind of sad thinking about this little old lady always calling us and how she'd feel if she tried to call and the phone was disconnected. I would have hated for her to try to call family and think they wanted nothing to do with her.
This happened to us!! I can't remember the name of the lady she'd always ask for, but I remembered it for years because she called so often. (Oh!! It was Joyce.) Sometimes she'd leave messages, and sometimes they were creepy and sad. One was just several minutes of her saying, "Joyyyyce??" between long pauses.
I never tried to have a conversation with her because I totally have social anxiety and talking on the telephone is one of the scariest things to have to do. I only answered if I was expecting a call, but for a while she called every day, multiple times, even after my husband told her it was the wrong number. For a while we didn't have an answering machine or a voicemail, and there was a day where the phone rang 20 times in a row before I unplugged it. I still feel guilty. I know it had to be her.
I just googled Joyce's number. I wish I had thought to do that in the first place, but social anxiety's a b!tch.
9. A mood, in a call.
When I was 14 I had this number that would call me multiple times a day for a week and no matter how much I told him (and later my mom and dad talked to him) he kept calling. So one day when he started calling again I just googled "woman screaming" on my laptop and played that for him. He never called again.
8. Poor Donny.
I had to file a police report and meet with two Homicide detectives because of my wrong number call.
Dude called me around 3am thinking I'm someone named "Amanda." He would NOT believe me that he had the wrong number. He said I was f*cking with him and that this was serious. That "Donny is f*cking dead. They shot Donny".
Headline in the news the next morning was about a man shot to death and if you had any information to please contact the police. And I had the name and phone number of someone that was there and knew the victim.
I wonder if I still have the police report....
Update: I can't find the police report.
What ended up happening?
No idea! I don't remember seeing any news about it after that initial headline.
7. Weed makes people do good things.
A series of wrong number calls to my mobile, at around 3am. The guy on the other end of the phone was extremely apologetic and quite obviously intoxicated. But then, so was I, so I really didn't mind; I was getting righteously stoned with some friends after a night out.
He'd called 3 or 4 times, getting a little more flustered and embarrassed each time, when he finally registered the laughter and heard my friends in the background shouting "Dave's not here man!" He was trying to call the number his friend had written down for him to get a ride home, but was too f*cked up to see. By some weird coincidence he happened to be somewhere relatively local, so we called him a cab.
Got a text the next day thanking me for getting him home safe. Weird, but cool.
You are a damn fine human and I wish I could give you more than my upvote.
6. Free delivery? I'm sold.
A dude from South London who was convinced I was buying a raccoon off of him. Rang me like 4 times and wouldn't accept that I wasn't buying the raccoon.
I love this one.
He was determined to get me to buy the racoon even offered to drive to Scotland to deliver it to me. Now I'm pretty sure you need a license to keep a trash panda so I have no idea how he got it or why he had it. 4 phone calls man just wouldn't give up.
I probably would have just given in and bought the raccoon.
5. Georgie is gone.
I had an old couple calling my number looking for their son "Georgie." The mom would call at least once a week and I would hear the dad in the background asking if Georgie answered the phone. When I would answer, the mom would ecstatically say "Goergie! It's your mom and dad! We haven't heard from you in so long!" It would break my heart to have to explain to them that I wasn't their son Georgie :(
You ever lay awake in bed at night, not able to shake the tiniest of thoughts that, just maybe, youre Georgie and dont remember?
No... but now I probably will. Thanks :(
4. Girls, man.
I haven't gotten any 'weird number calls' that I pick up BUT when I was like 10, I answered a call that looked familiar and these people were congratulating me on how I won some concert tickets. This is how it went:
Them: "CONGRATS!! YOU'VE JUST WON CHEETAH GIRLS CONCERT TICKETS!!!"
10 year old oblivious me who, at the time, was obsessed with the Cheetah Girls: "OH MY GOSH!!! REALLY?!? WHEN DO I PICK THEM UP?!?"
Them: "JUST KIDDING!! IT'S BEV AND LAUREN!!! WE'RE HAVING A SLEEP OVER WITHOUT YOU!!! BYE!!"
13 years later and am still salty af about that 'weird phone call'. F*ck you Bev and Lauren.
3. The bro code commands you to hook them up.
Back when you'd get a new cell number when you changed providers, I ended up with a number that had, apparently, been a drug dealer's phone number.
So for at least six months I'd frequently get phone calls asking for Mookie any time between about 6 AM and 3 AM.
The majority of the calls weren't too bad, the people would just be disappointed that they'd have to find someone new to buy weed from. But a few were just silly, like the guy who didn't believe that I wasn't actually Mookie in disguise, or the few people who would follow up by asking if I could hook them up.
2. 'I'm not a lumber company but I've got wood' is the only response.
I still get calls from people thinking I'm a lumber company and I tell them they have the wrong number, then they say they don't, which made no sense so I hung up, and they called back and complained that I'm terrible at customer service.
I used to work at Party City and people called screaming about their home alarm malfunctioning or their electric bill being too high. They never believed they had the wrong number so I would just start asking them what kind of birthday party they were throwing and pitching balloons at them. That got the point across.
"No, this is Patrick!"
1. You gotta move on, dude.
I answered a call this one time and this guy starts asking for some lady. I told him that wasn't my name and he just said "well who are you?" I told him my name and then he got kind of aggressive and asked me "Why do you have my late Wife's Phone?!" I had to explain to him it was my phone and I had no idea who he was talking about. The thing that I still can't figure out is why he was calling his late wife's number...? When you say somebody's late doesn't that mean they're... dead.......?
Yeah it sounds like he wanted to call her number to hear her old voicemail recording or something? And he likely doesn't understand how cell phones work and that after so many years someone else gets assigned that old number. My dad died in 2004 and we called his number for a while after just to hear him say his name on the voicemail. Then one day I called and it was some random dudes voicemail and I figured the number got reassigned.
That's sad.
- 14 Best Wrong Number Calls People Have Ever Received ... ›
- What's the weirdest 'wrong number' call or text you've received ... ›
- What was the weirdest wrong number call/ wrong text you have ever ... ›
- CALLING THE WRONG NUMBER | Reddit Stories - YouTube ›
- What is the strangest "wrong number" call you've gotten? : AskReddit ›
"Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the hottest and dumbest of them all?"
I know that is not verbatim the original quote, but it is close to the original.
Brains and beauty are always intertwined.
So often people confess about wanting to be more of the other.
No one is ever happy where they are. Why are we like that?
If given a chance, like a Disney movie, how do you trade?
Is it superficial to want looks over knowledge? Or vice versa?
Let's get deep....
Redditor BroodyBatman wanted to know who was willing to give up a little bit of brains for a whole lot of beauty, so they asked:
"Would you give up 15-20 IQ points to be really, REALLY ridiculously good looking? Why?"
I want more looks. I'm pretty smart. I could lose a few points. What do I miss? Math? I have a calculator.
Thanks Nan...
Nbc Wings GIF by HULUGiphy"No because according to my Nana, I am already really, really ridiculously good looking." ~ AardvarkAndy
The Hard Way
"I’d give up 15-20 IQ points to just be really ridiculously hard working." ~ garrhunter
"This is the way. 18 years of school and Uni taught me, don’t worry about trying, you soak up enough to get by. Just putting half an ounce of effort and I realised I can do stuff that actually matters to me. There are subreddits that help get disciplined, I know I’m not ready to make progress, but check a few out. If you’re in the right place in your journey, maybe you can make a difference." ~ WetDogDeoderant
Full On...
"Most definitely. I'm not that bright to begin with, so I may as well go full bimbo." ~ ATrulyTerriblePerson
"Being 'smart' hasn’t helped me that much in life, might as well give being attractive a go!" ~ blueboxreddress
ABS
"Can I give up 6 IQ points for 6 pack abs?" ~ toeofcamell
"Actually, IQ can be changed in some extent. It is measured by your ability to resolve different types of problems, so... if you're trained enough, you can actually increase your IQ score. But of course, it'll be frustrating being outsmarted by a natural genius that put no effort to progress while you spend a lifetime developing your capacities. It can go the other way, too: naturally gifted people can regress if they don't train, although it will take more time." ~ Enilemme27
Bianca Says...
bianca del rio GIF by RuPaul's Drag RaceGiphy"No because according to Bianca del Rio, one of the greatest philosophers of our time, beauty fades, but dumb is forever." ~ and-she-did-it
Looks are so subjective. Brains are forever. I'm learning.
Be Better
Olivia Wilde Reaction GIFGiphy"In a heartbeat. Unless it caused me to forget what I already know, I’m at a place in my career where I’m not learning that much, mostly relying on applying previous knowledge, and being ridiculously good looking would make my life better by making people treat me better in general." ~ Wit-wat-4
Calculations...
"No. IQ is already low enough. I can’t lose any more. Appearance doesn’t take long before it fades away anyways haha." ~ Sparkles0_
"One of the ways of calculating IQ is based off of how similar you are to peers of you own age. So test a 2 year old and they can perform at the same level as the average 4 year old and they have an IQ of 200. Or if a 10 year old is a bit delayed and is at the level of a 9 year old then they would have a IQ of 90."
"When this version of IQ is applied to some at age 50+ having a lower IQ would mean that the person is behind the average development of their peers, just in this case that development is actually a deterioration. So if one were to live to 100 and they trade 40 points they would be at the mental level of a 60 year old." ~ TheDotCaptin
Below 0
"Maybe that would push my IQ below zero and create an underflow error, turning my 18 IQ int 32768 IQ, and giving me knowledge of all things in existence, on second hand, I would probably learn something that would make me sad, so i don't wanna." ~ Warm-Swimming5903
Let's Get High
"No. As much as I would love to be ridiculously good looking, I have to remember why I personally dislike smoking weed. I can't freaking think in a straight line when I'm high. It's like I have to search for connections for things to make sense and it's frankly infuriating not being able to communicate my thoughts effectively."
"I would honestly hate to live like that day to day, even if it's not quite that bad. It's maddening when I can't make sense of things that should make sense but my brain just doesn't wrap around it. I wouldn't voluntarily take on more of that. Plus I'm already married and his eyes are already on me as I am, so I don't see any reason to do this." ~ Instant-Noods
Finding Life
Sexy Cat GIF by Team CocoGiphy"I'm pretty sure there's a lot more to life than being really, really, ridiculously good looking. And I plan on finding out what that is." ~ FilsonWhisk
There is no wrong answer, née, preference here. Just be your best you. No matter how you chose.
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny or heartbreaking moment again.
The world is not so big a place, is it?
While we like to think of ourselves as isolated in this billion plus planet, there can be a lot more crossover than we think. We call these instances coincidences, hoping to find the right word to explain what happens when a one-in-a-million chance occurs.
If there's over seven billion plus people in the world, turns out you can run into these 'coincidences' more often than you think.
Reddit user, Ok_Ambassador886, wanted to know how the fates aligned perfectly when they asked:
"What's the most unbelievable coincidence you've ever had?"
The unique thing about a coincidental happening is how fast it springs up on you. You won't see it coming, you won't even be thinking about it, so when it does happen, the surprise of it is enough to make you slap your forehead and go, "Whoa!"
Great Minds?
"My dad and his twin live far apart. Without even knowing it, they both bought, in the same week, the same car in the same colour."
Garaquarubyline
"I’m a twin. The coincidences on what we do, miles apart but almost simultaneously, are too strange to explain. Science underestimates how much of what we are and do is hardwired genetically."
DomingoLee
So Close...
"Lost my wallet on a trip to Chicago. Found a wallet under the night stand in the hotel. It was not my wallet but belonged to someone who lived two blocks from me in DC."
voice_of_craisin
That's How You Know You Got A Bro 4 Lyfe
"Not a big deal but we always laugh about it. I was hanging out with a buddy and I was dropping him off at his house. As he gets out of the car I start to drive off, but I stop, roll down the window and shout him over and say hey man, I have this overwhelming urge to ask you if you want a piece of gum. He burst out laughing and said get the f-ck out bro, I literally was just thinking to myself that I would kill for a piece of gum. Needless to say we're heterosexual life mates"
Idontdanceforfun
"That’s a quality bromance right there"
LordSevolox
As stated earlier, there are more than seven billion people on this planet. The odds of running into one specific person whom you have not seen in years is so high I'm not even going to try and compute it for this because it turns out to find someone you haven't seen in a long time is just go to Disney.
Not You. You.
"Was walking around Boston on vacation (I’m from DC) and thought I saw a guy who I interned with ten years before. He was from California and I had not seen him for 10 years. There was no reason he would be Boston but I thought it was him and then when he got closer I noticed it was not him. I even said to my wife hey there’s a guy i interned with, but was mistaken. About 15 minutes later we were walking on a new block and the actual guy I interned with was sitting on a bench waiting for his girlfriend to get done shopping. Unbelievable."
PropBrother227
No, Not You. The Guy Who Looks Exactly Like You.
"Went to high school on the east coast, moved to Southern California years later. One day I’m at Disneyland with the family watching a show and I see a guy sitting about 5 feet away who has to be a guy I knew in high school so I call out to him and yup it’s him. 6 months later I’m at the airport for a red eye flight and I spot him again eating at a restaurant so I say to him “how do I keep running into you?” He looks at me surprised and I realize it isn’t him, but it is his twin brother who I also knew from high school."
Global-Philosophy-11
Maybe The Answer To All These Is Disney
"In 1999, took my girlfriend to Disney World for a graduation present. While at Epcot, we sat outside and ate while talking about the band I had previously been in. Just then, the guitarist walked up and said 'Hey!'"
codallas
Surprise or not, there's nothing more warming to the heart than having a coincidence bring to mind that maybe, in this crazy, mixed up world, you're not alone.
Similar Tastes Carry Far
"I had an old Jeep (that had a very specific window vinyl that I had put on the back window) that I ended up trading in at the Ford dealership in my town. My mom lived by the dealership and watched as it was loaded up and taken away several days later with some other vehicles. Months go by and I drive past a house I had lived in years before, and there sat my old Jeep, vinyl decal still on the back window."
"Now what are the chances that the random person that happened to live in my old house would also wind up with my old vehicle. Blew my mind."
BestKept_Secret
Saved A Few Dollarydoos
"I was driving with an old fully loaded trailer long distance, not quite middle of nowhere but fairly rural, not much around etc."
"Trailer gets a flat tyre. I had no spare. The exact spot where I pull over happens to have around 3 or 4 tyres of various sizes just sitting behind some small bushes."
"I find one that matches perfectly to my flat tyre, which also happens to be the only one of them that’s inflated."
"I swap the tyre and continue driving, thinking what the hell just happened. I still can’t believe it happened."
Beginshere
What A Wonderfully Awful Surprise
"Mom and dad divorced when I was very young. There was no contact what so ever. I was around 10yo when we visited an aunt outside of our city. On the way back to the train station we got kinda lost. It was getting late and mobile phones was not a thing back then. A boy standing at the same bus stop apparently saw my mom panicking and offered to come with him to his parents and his stepdad would bring us to the train station."
"You cannot imagine the shock when we found out that it was actually my dads home. I was to young to fully understand but was happy seeing my dad after so many years. My mom was in shock and almost fainted. I mean if all places"
Ladyvenoms
A Bittersweet Reunion
"It was my first night at a homeless shelter. With nowhere left to go I reserved myself a bed there, and after I was registered and shown around I went to the living room and settled down a bit."
"As I was sitting there, for some reason a close friend of mine came to mind. Let's call him Darryl."
"Darryl and I hadn't seen each other for a while by then, while before I became homeless we would frequently hang out. I figured he must be wondering how I was doing, and why he hadn't heard from me in a while."
"And just when I decided to give him a call the next day, guess who came walking in! Yep, Darryl had arrived at the shelter as well. It took a while before he noticed me, but when he did, naturally we sat next to each other to catch up."
"It was a bittersweet reunion for the both of us. We were happy to see each other, but sad about the circumstances we were in. We both wanted the best for each other, instead we got the worst."
"I'm glad that neither of us had to face the homeless life alone though. I'm glad we found each other and that we were able to support one another. Both of us made it out of there within a couple of months. I now have a cosy apartment with very lovely neighbors. He moved in on a boat and lives in peace and quiet, like he always wanted."
"The end."
Confident_Ad_3573
Keep your eyes open, because the long arm of coincidence might be out there coming for you some day.
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again.
People Divulge Which Totally Obscure Conspiracy Theories They Believe In
Let me make a quick point about conspiracy theories: Do people understand just how difficult it is for many of the conspiracies they claim to believe in to come to fruition? We're talking global levels of cooperation here, by the way, and it's clear the world can't even get itself out of a pandemic sooo...
But thankfully, there are some more innocent comnspiracies out there. For example, a former classmate once told me that he was convinced he couldn't remember all the items on his shopping list because of shopping elves distracting him to buy other things he didn't exactly need.
To be fair, he was a little stoned at the time and I told him he might want to consider just writing and referring to a shopping list.
People shared their thoughts with us after Redditor ConcentrateNext1734 asked the online community,
"What’s a conspiracy that you believe, but the majority of people don’t believe or know about?"
"Colonel Sanders..."
"Colonel Sanders puts an addictive chemical in his chicken that makes you crave it fortnightly."
artiallthings
This one is very specific.
Blink twice if you need our help.
"Netflix's marketing team..."
"Netflix marketing team releases memes about shows to give off the appearance that everyone is watching said show. Since people have FOMO they watch the shows to understand the memes until everyone eventually does watch it."
FriedBacon90
Honestly, is this even a conspiracy theory? It sounds like good marketing strategy.
"My parents have a sensor..."
"My parents have a sensor that tells them whenever a sex scene appears in a show/movie/game on my TV so they can always walk in at the most embarrassing moment."
DynamicPJQ
This one might actually be good. Parents are eerily good at this. I think my own mother might be in on the conspiracy theory.
"This is one..."
"This is one I believe because it doesn’t really affect anything and I think it’s fun: the Loch Ness Monster is the ghost of a dinosaur that now haunts the lake."
Snailpics
Okay, this is rather cute, I have to admit. I can get behind this, lol
"That cats..."
"That cats can see ghosts. And I don't even know if I believe in ghosts."
LordVonChill
Have you SEEN cats stare into space for no reason?? What are they looking at?
"Big companies..."
"Big companies use Reddit and other social media to normalise shady behaviour. It seems every time news breaks about a company doing something shady, the top comments on Reddit are always along the lines of: 'Well duh! We've known this for years!'
"So instead of outrage, the news are met with apathy, and there's a feeling that you can't change the system anyway."
ElectricalPotato21
Pretty sure this has been happening for a while – and not really a conspiracy. Look at how big companies are infiltrating online communities to undermine workers' movements.
"A bot..."
"A bot posts this question every once and a while to see how many conspiracies people know about."
ParkerTheCuher
Quite possibly. Reddit is sneaky that way.
"Toothbrush heads..."
"Toothbrush heads are purposely oversized to make you use more toothpaste."
neohelamay
Take this one up with the toothbrush head lobby, why don't you!
"All the stop lights..."
"All the stop lights in my home town are timed so that you get stuck at each one if you drive the speed limit. The stop light people got paid off by big oil!"
Dinkle
Whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow your roll, Erin Brockovitch. We can't have you digging much deeper.
"Trump didn't..."
"Trump didn't intend to win the Presidency."
pattyG80
You know, many people have suggested this and there is a contingent that believes he just got too drunk on the idea of all that power and felt he couldn't back away.
Well, let's be real: These conspiracies (or shall I say "conspiracies" are just a trifle bit healthier to believe in than Q-Anon related stuff.
Sure is nice to have people believing in the Loch Ness monster being a ghost than sullying its memory to overthrow constitutional democracy.
Have some theories of your own to share? Feel free to tell us more in the comments below!
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again.
People Confess What They Saw As A Kid That Actually Gave Them Nightmares
Children are very impressionable. They're also little humans, remember, and all quite different. Some are more afraid of some things than others. When I was a kid, some of my classmates were utterly terrified of Chucky, the killer doll.
I think he worked the best in the first film and to a larger extent in the second, but after that? Those movies got a bit ridiculous, wouldn't you agree?
Well, the memories linger, as you can imagine.
People took us on a trip down memory lane after Redditor teacatpeng asked the online community,
"What’s something you saw (as a kid) that gave you nightmares for a long time?"
"Specifically..."
"The movie Signs. Specifically the scene where they are recording a home movie and catch the feet under the fence or something. Greetings from my nightmares extraterrestrials!"
Okenthusiam509
Oh Lord, this movie. I don't think it has aged well but it did pack a punch when I was younger.
"My young mind..."
The Fly (1986). My young mind was not ready for that movie.
thenightcrew88
To be fair, who is? Thanks, David Cronenberg!
"There was a TV movie..."
"There was a TV movie (Fire in the Sky?) I remember watching and all I can remember is a scary red sky and the guy laying on a table. Terrified me as a kid!"
Jefz
You are correct! The movie is indeed Fire in the Sky and it appears to have successfully traumatized an entire generation!
"My whole class..."
"I was around like nine or ten? My whole class saw one of the alcoholics in our town viciously beat his girlfriend right next to the school grounds. It was… a little bit traumatising."
UngusBungus
We're sorry you had to see that. This is devastating. Hopefully you were able to get some help afterward.
"I saw..."
I saw a car crash when I was about 7. I don't know if it is a result of that but I still have a phobia of driving and don't have a driving license at 26."
Lord-AG
Possibly? You'd be surprised how much is rooted in childhood fear!
"If you know..."
"Event Horizon. If you know, you know. If you don't know, you'll sleep better not knowing."
stx06
Oh, I definitely know. That movie was creepy. The final act loses its way a bit but wow, is the rest of the film effective.
"Scared the hell out of me..."
"The Exorcist - watched it during a sleepover at my friend’s house when I was 9. Scared the hell out of me and couldn’t sleep right for weeks afterward."
VictorBlimpmuscle
Who could blame you? It's amazing that this film continues to attract more fans each year. It's exceptional.
"Nightmares for weeks after..."
"I was about 7 or 8 years old when The Poseidon Adventure aired as a late night movie one evening when my parents were out and we had a babysitter. Nightmares for weeks after, and I wouldn't swim in pools that whole summer."
AmishH*eFights
Come to think of it, the 1970s disaster movie craze no doubt made some people think twiice about boarding a ship... or being in a high rise... or an airplane...
"I remember seeing..."
"I remember seeing a commercial for a horror movie when I was younger and it featured a scene where a woman's face was melting. It terrified me and gave me nightmares for weeks."
staffs-burglaries
Now I need to hunt this movie down! What could it be?
"My bedroom..."
"Poltergeist III. My bedroom had a wall of mirrors in it at the time. I still have a hard time looking in a mirror if the lights are off."
willowgrl
The scene you're mentioning is probably the most effective one in the film and by then the series had definitely overstayed its welcome.
Are some of these posts bringing back some unsettling memories? We apologize in advance. You probably saw more scary movies than you remember, come to think of it.
Have some stories of your own? Feel free to tell us more in the comments below!
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again.