On privacy and wrong telephone numbers
I just got scared out of my wits.
A man with the same first and last name as I called me home, saying he looked around the site [Which site!? My site!?] and wanted to order tickets for a show in London [WHAT!?]. He rambled on for a bit but I was too bewildered to pay much attention.
When I expressed my confusion, he said he was sorry and ‘hung up’. Maybe he didn’t really put the receiver down or press the button well, because the call didn’t end.
I didn’t hang up and kept listening. I know, it’s not nice to spy on people, but I was very unsettled by that call. After a little while, maybe ten seconds, I heard a woman in the background asking the man “How was it?” [The phone call? The prank?]. I suppose the man was also a bit confused as he took a few seconds to answer. He read a telephone number aloud and realized his mistake: he meant to call a ticket ordering service and got a digit wrong.
This happened after a conversation about privacy (or rather, lack of it).
Having a relatively common name and being paranoid about privacy sucks. Even moreso when people with the same name as you phone you home. As we say nowadays, I shat bricks1.
1 A dysphemism meaning someone experienced a situation that caused a profound sentiment of fear or was very startled.
