Posted on 07/21/2009 7:18:28 PM PDT by 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.)
(Excerpt) Read more at stltoday.com ...
This will be the accepted norm from many officials, stop dissent in extremis. This will soon involve anything political, you can be arrested, hauled hundreds of miles away for detention and given a very high bail.
Its like speed traps.
Stimulus!
Best thing I have ever done was to have a long winded recording on my telephones answering machine stating that a live person will not pick up the phone for any telemarketer...period. I screen all calls.
I consider anyone calling me uninvitied the same as home invasion. I feel no obligation to be nice or polite whatsoever. I finally just got a cell and never give out the number.
Only like 5 people got it and I don’t know the number myself, so I can’t give it to you, even if I was so inclined. I also never carry it unless going out of town. I do keep it by my computer for my wife to call when necessary. Basically I hate the phone.
I have that saved and watch it at least once a week and it never fails to make me smile.
That's exactly what I do. If they had any sense at all it would embarrass them, plus it wastes their time which is the only practical thing you can do to hurt them. Two less minutes working the phone is just that many less suckers fleeced.
When I was younger and stupider, I used to belch into the phone at them.
Reminds me of the Dave Barry column where he's talking about how hard it is to find out how much they want for a car you're considering buying. He said that one method which can be effective is to take out a gun and say "Tell me the price of this car or I will kill you", except that it's actually illegal in some states to kill car salesmen!
Exactly. I think the only thing that will hurt them is waste their time (I assume they're on commission), and then I've been thinking about getting an air horn to blow in the phone.
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.
He made the call himself, and then started in with the terroristic threats.
Meanwhile, the police refuse to go after real criminals (with all due respect to those of you working in law enforcement and trying your best).
I understand the police investigating the man, but arresting and imprisoning him is going too far, especially if both the man and the telemarketer exchanged heated words. Plus, the exhange took place on the telephone, hundreds of miles away from each other; it didn’t happen in person.
Someone not only threatened me in person, but he came right up and raised his hand to backhand me during an argument. (Road rage - he yelled at me, and I made the mistake of yelling back.) I gave the license number to 911, a physical description to the police, and the location where the man said he lived. And they made every excuse not to follow up.
Side note: I used to work in sales/telemarketing years ago, but the telemarketers calling my home these days are very rude, hang up when you ask a question, and you can never track down the call.
I pretend that I'm retarded or hard of hearing and have them say stuff a couple of times. Then I get a pen and write down what they offer and have them spell it. Then I spell it back.. It's kinda fun. that's if I'm bored. Usually don't answer if the caller ID isn't a known friend.
The other good one that my kids and I do for giggles is pick up the phone and then all 3-4 start talking at once.
It's so funny. the kids love it cause they feel like they're screwing with adults, my wife thinks it's stupid and we all get to laugh together.
Then there's the old standby... speak in Spanish. Then in broken spanish call them racists. bwahahahahahaha... Sometimes it's better than watching TV. My calls usually start around 9-10 a.m. and stop around 8 p.m.
I think everyone should just see how creative you can get. I actually found out about the place that was making calls to me was located in St. Louis MO and got the address through a google search and business listing database while yakking to the caller and told him I'd come over and sign the paperwork for my credit card life insurance if he'd just tell my his name and what he looked like. With google map it was FUNNY to tell him which parking lot I was going to pull into. You can describe the intersection and the view... actually made me nervous about how nervous he got.
They're a pain in the a## and do need to hold their breaths for about 8-9 minutes.... but what can you do. You obviously can't threaten them, but laughing always makes stressful situations pass quickly. ........ oh yeah.
The OTHER thing is to just give them fake account numbers to checking and tell them you're going to hurry up and pay whatever they want... have them give the address and just mangle it up as they repeat it over and over... It's hard to do with credit cards cause it only takes seconds for them to realize it's fake and/or the security code is fake, but you can keep switching numbers around by one or two places.... usually they only stay on for about 1 minute at the most but sometimes I think they like to goof off also and it lasts longer.
I worked for companies that had their own sales departments, and we, as sales representatives, would call people to make sales for the company. But, some companies hire outside telemarketing firms to make calls, and the telemarketers calling me at home these days aren’t very knowledgeable, are very rude, don’t care, hang up on me when I ask a question, etc. I can’t imagine how they’re making any sales.
They’re even rude when I’m the one calling them. I called a company and was disconnected twice because I asked a question that was taking them off script, I guess. If I ever had a business, I would never contract with a telemarketing firm.
Sounds like said automated system was quite primitive. Otherwise, it would have tagged you with a low productivity rating: minutes on phone per dollar in sales too large.
You are correct sir. If he instigated the call, then he was totally at fault. In situations like this, I always just hang up.
But the shyster extended warranty company initiated the relationship by sending him an obviously fraudulent offer.
Best outcome: Papenfus acquitted based on combination of jury sympathy and bogus defense of diminished capacity because of the motorcycle accident medication. Then he sues the warranty company, bankrupts them, and several hundred telemarketers file initial unemployment claims. Bottom line: Obama's fault.
I’m not endorsing the company’s fraudulent marketing materials. But this wasn’t a telemarketer invading the guy’s home. If he wanted to do something about the fraudulent mailings, sending copies of the item to the state attorney general and to the USPS Inspector General’s offices would have been a good move. Calling up the company and making terroristic threats was stupid and a crime. Two crimes don’t make an innocent.
Mr. Papenfus would only be convicted by a judge in Latham Massachusetts.
>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.<
Although certainly not the brightest idea he had, to be sure. In his defense I have to say that I got on their calling list myself. I am on the national do not call registry. They still called. i filed complaints with the registry. Asked the solicitors directly to take my name off the list. Let the phone ring off the hook. They continued for about 3 months. It was VERY frustrating.
I would ask nicely for them not to call again, tell them i wasn’t interested, told them i was on the do not call list. They just never gave up until one day it just stopped.
Him getting arrested for terrorism is over the top though. Clearly he alarmed them, so maybe harassment a misdemeanor at best. But a d felony?
Overkill.
I am curious to know if anyone knows what agency made the arrest???
federal, state, local???
>I found mentioning the $11,000 fine per violation gets them to quit calling pronto.
http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs5-tmkt.htm<
I’ll take that ,,, thank ya much!
>Do not call lists are ignored. Why should someone not answer their own phone??
A persons phone is not a public resource.<
As i posted before this happened to me as well.
i am on the do not call list.
have a private number
Plus I spoke with the company several times asking them not to call me anymore, i was not interested please take my name out of the database.
filed complaints with the do not call registry
it continued for about 3 months. :-(
I admit it did get on my nerves. But i never threatened to burn the place down ...
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