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 ...
LOL, I always just tell these mice, “Can you hold on just a sec?” and then I put the phone down and forget about it until later.
“This was NOT A TELEMARKETER.
An Ohio man, fed up with deceptive junk mail, “
I would guess the story is incorrect and they were phone calls.
Apparently there’s a loophole in the law that says if you already do business with the company, then the don’t call list doesn’t apply.
And they will use ANY contact you might have with the company that gets them your name and number as “doing business”.
If you register at their website, that is “doing business”.
If you send in a mail-in rebate form, that is “doing business”.
"He wanted to know, 'Why are you sending this when we've never had a warranty?'" Tracie Papenfus said. In fact, Charles Papenfus asked that same question several times. He called the firm after receiving the mailer, then he called the company back to complain some more, said Douglas Forsyth, a local attorney representing Papenfus. The call during which Papenfus allegedly made a terrorist threat was initiated by the firm, in a response to a voice-mail message left by Papenfus, Forsyth said.
This is clearly the misuse of terrorism laws by a group of criminal thugs to mess with a private citizen who refused to hand over his money. That a prosecutor and police department are involved in it is not at all surprising.
Time for the federales to bust up this deal.
In that light, his behavior is one very good definition of stupid.
He called and left a voicemail at the business asking to be called back. The business complied with his request. That’s not telemarketing.
Given the company’s history, he could actually have dealt them a serious blow if he’d done the rational and legal thing, and contacted the state attorney general re the obviously fraudulent claim in the material they send him in the mail. Instead he calls them up and threatens to burn their building down.
One other time when I used to just hang up on 'em some stupid b*tch called me right back to tell me I had no class. She found out I learned some very colorful language while I was in the Navy.
I just used to turn my TV to some obnoxious infomercial and lay the phone in front of the speaker and turn the volume up.
I’m going to have to use that one.
Others I’ve used:
Pretending to be drunk, but really interested.
Asking really, really dumb questions like “What’s a car warranty” and then asking them to repeat the answers over and over.
Pretending I just got back from a concert and can’t hear anything.
Ones I want to use:
Try to convince the telemarketer to come to Jesus.
End each sentence I speak with “in accordance with prophecy” and then ask the teledrone if what they are saying is “according to prophecy”
That was hilarious, thanks for posting it.
In the meantime the local law enforcement folks really ought to lawyer up because I think the federales might want to be interested in what amounts to a kidnapping.
If I were to call them out of the blue and threaten them that would be different, but I'm not going to do that. Rather I will wait until they send me a brochure.
good catch...
Does this mean that Glenn “GET OFF MY PHONE!” Beck could now be charged for terrorism.
There was a great scene in the movie “Boiler Room”:
Seth: (Phone rings) Hello?
Ron from the Daily News: Hi, Mr. Dahvis, this is Ron from the Daily News. How you doin’ this morning?
Seth: It’s Davis, and I’m not interested.
Ron: Okay, I’m sorry to have bothered you. Have a nice day.
Seth: Wait a minute. Wait, that’s your pitch? You consider that a sales call?
Ron: Well, um...
Seth: You know, I get a call from you guys every Saturday and it’s always the same half assed attempt. If you guys wanna close me, you should sell me.
Ron: All right.
Seth: All right. Start again.
Ron: Okay. Hi, this is Ron from the Daily News. How you doin’ this morning?
Seth: Sh-—y. What do you want?
Ron: It’s not what I want, sir. It’s what you want.
Seth: Ron, now we’re talkin’. All right. What are you selling me?
Ron: I’m offering you a subscription to the Daily News at a substantially reduced price. We’re trying to reach out to people that have never had home delivery before.
Seth: Right, so, basically, everybody who already has a subscription is getting f’d on this one?
Ron: Yeah, I guess so.
Seth: All right, well, I can handle that. So, tell me, why should I buy your paper? I mean, you know, why... Why shouldn’t I get the Times or the Voice, you know?
Ron: Well, the Village Voice is free, sir, so if you want it, you should certainly pick it up. But the Daily News offers you something no other paper can: a real taste of New York. We have the best features, more photographs than any other daily in New York and we have the most reliable delivery in the city. Now what do you think?
Seth: You know what I think, Ron? I think that was a sales call. Good job, buddy.
Ron: So you gonna buy a subscription?
Seth: No, I already get the Times.
This was probably the only way he could get them to crawl out from under their boiler room operation rock so that they could be identified. I hope he’s in a position to counter-sue for harassment and disregarding the Do Not Call List, etc.
I’ve gotten those calls and can understand his rage. I’m on his side. After all, how can it be a legitimate threat, when these weasels hide behind their electronic walls so you can’t even find them to make a normal legal complaint against?
Note to self: Read complete story.
I responded without realizing that this wasn’t just the lastest in a series of harassing phone calls.
“Never mind.” — Emily Latella
Once I start steering the conversation back to my question they usually hang up quickly.
It's fun.
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