prank

Remember prank phone calls?

I made them as a teenager. Most of us did, right?

The difference was, mine were annoying and harmless.

Last night, between 2:30 and 4am we got some basic hang-up pranks. But after we took the phone off the hook, they started leaving messages:

Yes, they swore.
Yes, they swore at us.
Yes, they used a creepy male Scream voice.
Yes, they used our names.

(Though I imagine they just got them from the answering machine message)

I am trying hard to laugh about it. But it wasn’t very funny.

In fact, it kind of scared me, and I have spent most of today trying to think of comebacks should they call back again tonight. I even considered changing the message on the answering machine in order to address them directly.

I know I really shouldn't let some drunk teenage fuckwits get the better of me, but I actually feel really invaded.

Why would somebody do this? Sure, I understand the mentality of the Gotcha Call – infantile as it is – and I can even comprehend the sadistic amusement of getting someone out of bed at that hour of the morning.

But why would you dial a random number and threaten people you don’t even know?

What is fun about that?