Phone rage leads to arrest here for Ohio man [got angry at telemarketer, charged with terrorism]

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch ^ | 2009-07-21 | Matthew Hathaway

[rabscuttle385]

An Ohio man, fed up with deceptive junk mail, made the mistake of losing his temper while on the phone with a St. Louis company pitching an extended auto-service contract. Now he finds himself behind bars, where he is charged with making a terrorist threat.

According to court documents, Charles W. Papenfus, 43, allegedly told a sales representative during a May 18 telephone call that he would burn down the building and kill the employees and their families. He was indicted for making a terrorist threat, a Class D felony; and he could be sentenced to up to four years in prison if convicted.

Papenfus' wife, Tracie, said she hasn't seen her husband since his arrest on June 27, when he was lured to a Fostoria, Ohio, police station with a false story about being suspected in a tavern fight there. Charles Papenfus, a self-employed mechanic who sometimes works on the department's police cruisers, dropped by the station to clear his name, she said.

Tracie Papenfus said she still can't understand why her husband is held 450 miles from home at the St. Louis workhouse on a $45,000 bond she can't afford to pay. (That amount could be lowered at bond-reduction hearing scheduled for Monday.)

[rabscuttle385]

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[pnh102]

More law enforcement resources wasted on yet another minor crime when real crooks walk free.

[mad puppy]

do not call list?

caller id?

don’t answer the phone?

just hang up?

Nope.... I’ll go with threaten to burn down their building and kill their families.

Moron.

[WVNan]

Sounds like one of those dangerous terrorists. s/

[John123]

I bet the telemarketer records their calls... the phone rage guy should have just hung up the phone...

[PetroniusMaximus]

“Papenfus”

Prophetic.

[PackerBoy]

To be fair, the auto warranty scum disregard all of the telemarketing laws and most use robo calls (which have ben banned under federal law since 1991).

A number of state attorneys general have been clamping down of late - about 3 years toolate.

The guy should not have made those threats, of course.

[Naspino]

More law enforcement resources wasted on yet another minor crime when real crooks walk free.

Apparently, 27000 of them in California. I guess they showed us -- don't pay more taxes we'll release all kinds of bad guys on you. Sure sounds like more of a terrorist act than anything this guy did.

[Ciexyz]

Not to excuse this man's conduct, but surely the situation arises when a mentally-disabled person answers the phone and responds to an unwanted caller in an inappropriate manner. Why did this phone call get out of hand? The telemarketer at any time could have said, Sorry to bother you Sir, I'm terminating this call.

[rabscuttle385]

According to the article, the telemarketer apparently called the guy several expletives.

[anonsquared]

I found mentioning the $11,000 fine per violation gets them to quit calling pronto.

http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs5-tmkt.htm

[AlexW]

Granted, the guy went a bit overboard, but I do see a rapidly
encroaching control by “thought police” who will criminalize
any thought or speech that goes against the party or system.

[Hardastarboard]

They use "spoof numbers" so you can't call them back, and can't block them because the number that comes through is always a different number. What the man did was wrong, but after you've gotten three calls a day from these evil rotten @$$holes for a week in a row, it's tough not to want to cause them harm. Believe me, I've been there. They always hang up on me, however.

Fortunately the calls have stopped ever since the recent finding against one of these companies. I hope the government eventually cracks down on them and takes every dime every one of the owners, founders, executives, employees, even the janitors, has, or ever hopes to have.

[muawiyah]

This actually sounds like KIDNAPPING ~ time to call the FBI.

[bamahead]

The Auto-Warranty telemarketer jerks are absolute scum. They are rude and just hang up on you if you ask to be taken off the list. I’ve had fun with a few of them...ask them ‘which of my cars is expiring?’...they should know, they called you. It really pisses them off...

[xrmusn]

Guess I could be in ‘trouble’ also...I opened FR earlier today and the ‘bing’ pop up was attached to it and I finally had to crash my computer to get rid of it.
It appeared later on when I opened something else I have tied to IE but this time the ‘x-out’ box was visible (earlier hidden at the bottom of my screen and I couldn’t move either)...
Earlier I had opened the box tried to delete it and the 3rd time I asked the question “HOW DO I GET YOUR UNWANTED $—T OFF MY COMPUTER”.
Guess I will have to be ‘heavy’ when answering the door for the next couple of days...<: <: <:

[org.whodat]

Asking the women to have phone sex works much better, and you can always ask the male callers to tell you about their homo-life style. If he’s really limp wrested ask him about his aids treatments.

[Viking2002]

When you answer the phone, tell them no, you're not interested in extending your auto warranty, but as a licensed Mutual of Omaha agent, you can give them a great deal on a $100k term life policy! Then see how long you can string them along before they hang up on you. ROTFLMVAO

Gotta fight fire with fire when it comes to those maggots.

[BILL_C]

the phone rage guy should have just hung up the phone...

My favorite one is “CAN YOU HANG ON FOR A SECOND?” Put the phone down and walk off. Time to them is $$.