In March of 1966, my husband happened to be at home after a dental appointment - phone rang, and when I answered, there was not an immediate voice. My saying Hello twice more finally brought from the caller a - well - very bold and personal question about part of my anatomy.
The expression on my face brought the anticipated response from my husband, motioning for me to KEEP HIM TALKING. He then went next door to call Communications to trace the call.
"We don't have the authority to do that."
"I'M IN SECURITY AND IT IS MY WIFE ON THAT LINE - TRACE IT *NOW*!!"
Meanwhile, I kept the conversation going as close to the line without going over it I could, trying to elicit information from him that might help identify him. Gave hints of possibly complying with what he was trying to do, but not actually agreeing.
Would you believe it took 30 MINUTES of my drawing him out before they could determine the call was not from on Eielson AFB, but way down on the Aleutian Range?
It so happened all of Security at the base there was at a meeting and couldn't get to him in time! Took 5 more minutes before they could get a trace as to *which* telephone was the origin - 2 minutes before he hung up!
Not knowing this, he indicated he had "seen me," so I thought he was on Eielson. He said he wanted me to meet him, and I said I would think about it, knowing he wouldn't stay on line much longer, getting antsy. He said he would call the next day to make an arrangement...
Security wanted to send down our investigators to pursue this, but it was "another Command" and they wouldn't allow it. They told me to agree to meet him, and they'd have a fellow about my size with a fur trimmed parka pulled over his head meet him rather than me.
The problem then was what if he flew to Eielson on a military plane and found me first? The next day I sweated bullets, even knowing the line was tapped and being recorded. It did ring once, but no one spoke - - gets the adrenaline going!
What if - he knocked on my door?!
Two months later, we rotated out without any answer other than the call came from there - no outcome.
Next assigned to Myrtle Beach AFB, my husband happened to process in a fellow from Shemya, and asked if he had heard of the case.
He indeed had - said a telephone man had been dispatched to the building at the time of the call to remove that telephone. There was ONE set of footprints in the snow in - ONE out. No doubt he was the perpetrator.
This call was one of many that had been made to women on our base and other bases in Alaska, by the way, and they wanted badly to nail him.
At the court martial, he plead Not Guilty, and they proceeded to play the tape of the conversation with me - his voice - case closed.
Of course I was a bit apprehensive when the 3 years was up, in case he "looked me up" for ruining his life, but he didn't.
Yikes.
Sounds like a real winner.
Don't know exactly what brought this memory up, but had a crank call where the calling party merely sat quiet on the other end of the line.
After saying "hello" a few times, I got slightly miffed.
So I, being a jerk, starts with the heavy breathing (accomplice in the background making with the weird keening yips and moans) and FINALLY, a voice pipes up on the other end of the phone.
"You're SICK man!"
Never got another call from that number.
I didn't have the heart to tell him that his number showed up on the call ID.
Thank God he didn't try to look you up! Just another example of the Grace and Kindness of our Loving Lord. :)