Q: A friend of mine accidentally called me on her cell phone the other day while she was out shopping with another of our friends. I was able to make out part of the conversation. They were talking negatively about me and the way I am raising my child. Should I confront them?
A: Friends? They don’t sound like friends to me. I would ABSOLUTELY confront them. Consider it a blessing that you were able to get a peek into who they really are.
Many pocket dials can go REALLY wrong and lead to couples discovering their spouses are cheating, children overhearing an unsuitable conversation between parents or in your unfortunate incident, learning of friends' disloyalty.
My experiences with pocket/purse/butt dials are usually just garbled laughter or murmurs of conversation. The best was the time I got one from an associate discussing his animosity toward me with another co-worker. Don't think I didn't confront him. His defense was, “It always seems I call the absolute worst person possible just at the wrong time.” I replied, “Ummm, here's a solution: Stop trash talking people all the time, and that won't be an issue.”
Unintentional calls from criminals have made for some entertaining news lately.
Last year a couple of car thieves in Washington made a series of calls to 911. During the initial pocket dial, the 911 operator heard the men speaking about the game plan in a call that lasted 44 minutes. Officials could not locate the stolen vehicle in that instance, but luckily the thieves made another pocket dial four days later. Police were again unable to locate the suspects. Later that night, after receiving another accidental call from the thieves while they were stealing rims off a woman's car, police again missed the suspects. When the fourth call came two nights later from the same number, officers were ready and were able to make arrests.
Another brilliant criminal made a pocket dial to 911 just a few months ago. A Florida tow truck driver was arrested after dispatchers listened in on a conversation about the sale of drugs. Authorities were able to trace the location of the call and found a crack pipe in the truck. Woops.
My tip for those who like to talk badly about their friends, cheat on their spouse or participate in criminal behavior, take a few seconds to switch the settings on your phone to lock screen.
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