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Original poster

I’ve been reported as a missing person!

350 replies

Lizzielocket · 21/06/2019 00:30

Frequent poster and have name changed for this.
I was woken by my mobile ringing about 40 minutes ago, I answered it on the second call, it was the police, they were outside my property and wanted to come in. I duly went downstairs and let them in.
I was starting to feel panicky as I have elderly parents and an adult DD who doesn’t live at home anymore.
I was asked my full name which I told them, they then told me I have been reported as a missing person. Somebody had told them that my father and partner couldn’t make contact with me and they were very worried about me. I was with my father this afternoon and I said goodnight to my partner around 2 hours ago by text as he’s at an airport and was about to fly.
I am now in bed with a cup of tea and feeling very confused. They checked on my sleeping DC too.
I don’t know why I’m posting to be honest, has anybody else experienced this?
I’m a very normal woman with a very normal life, they insisted that the call to them wasn’t malicious. So very confused!

OP posts:
Baddabingbaddaboom · 21/06/2019 07:08

Jeez some people have over active imaginations Hmm

Good luck to you figuring this out though op!

Tink1990 · 21/06/2019 07:08

How strange. Glad you got some sleep.

IndieTara · 21/06/2019 07:09

Very weird op really hope you sort it

Bluesheep8 · 21/06/2019 07:12

Apologies for not getting to the end if the thread yet, but you said in a previous post that they asked for your father's name and number. Why would they need to do that if they had already been in contact with him?

sackrifice · 21/06/2019 07:19

they couldn’t tell me who made the call and passed my number on to them

They passed your number to the person who called in?

Littlemisslists · 21/06/2019 07:22

Passed the op no onto the police

ProfessorofPerspective · 21/06/2019 07:24

Sorry you've been so worried, it is very strange. But I couldn't help thinking what a great premise it is for the opening of a novel!

Littleheart5 · 21/06/2019 07:28

Seems crazy the police won’t reveal who reported it

AlaskanOilBaron · 21/06/2019 07:28

That's incredibly weird, I'd be absolutely boggled out of my mind. Hopefully, as the dust settles, this will prove an excellent conversation piece at dinner parties. Wink

Look forward to hearing an update.

Hippywannabe · 21/06/2019 07:29

In the novel, the friend would be secretly in love with OP and have engineered this to be her knight in shining armour who rescues her...

Tawdrylocalbrouhaha · 21/06/2019 07:33

I am not suggesting this is the case here, but I heard of an instance where it turned out to be the husband's other woman - she called while he was asleep at her house (possibly in the hope his wife or the police would call and find out? Or possibly he had told her his wife had left, and she wanted to check this?).

PerryMasonsFriend · 21/06/2019 07:35

It's probably not worth you doing this, but if you suspect it is part of a pattern of conduct of someone harassing you, you could make an application to a court for the police to disclose the name of the person to you.

If they aren't willing to tell you now, then it is unlikely a formal letter would get that information as they will say Data Protection law prevents it. However you can make an application for a third party disclosure order (it's called a Norwich Pharmacal order) where a third party (here the police) holds information about the identity of a wrong doer (here the person who made a malicious report).

You would need a cause of action against the person though - so something like harassment if it happens again or malicious falsehood.

I doubt it would be worth it now just to satisfy your curiosity but if it happens again, it may be worth bearing in mind.

[It's the same kind of court order that was obtained in this case against Mumsnet:

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6905503/Transgender-activist-wins-High-Court-battle-force-Mumsnet-reveal-identity-troll.html ]

GVmama · 21/06/2019 07:36

It really could be mistaken identity. Sometimes the Police aren't that well informed, they can only go on the information that they have.

A friend of the family went missing a few months ago and the Police came to visit me, asking if I knew or had seen this family friend recently, but they used his birth name which nobody uses. He's always been known by a different name. I had no idea who they were talking about until after they'd gone!

I really hope it turns out to be nothing to worry about!

barney11 · 21/06/2019 07:36

Does your partner go away often? It is odd this happened just as your partner is flying off somewhere.

PerryMasonsFriend · 21/06/2019 07:38

@Tawdrylocalbrouhaha

I am not suggesting this is the case here, but I heard of an instance where it turned out to be the husband's other woman - she called while he was asleep at her house (possibly in the hope his wife or the police would call and find out? Or possibly he had told her his wife had left, and she wanted to check this?).

I just saw this as cross post with mine and was Shock

People are so weird and creepy but now you've said this, it does make total sense. In fact, it is the most obvious answer. It's so unlikely to be mistaken identity - the most likely thing is someone wanting to harass or cause inconvenience - and that is a pretty simple and clear motive.

EleanorReally · 21/06/2019 07:39

it is very wrong that they passed your number onto the person reporting you missing, it should have been the other way round!

ThumbWitchesAbroad · 21/06/2019 07:40

Whoever it is obviously has your phone number to have been able to pass it on to the police in the first place. I imagine the police would be able to track your address from the phone number, if that wasn't also given by the reporting person.

But this means it's not likely to have been mistaken identity, UNLESS the police took the number down wrong!

HJWT · 21/06/2019 07:40

God OP you have had a rough night! 💐

scubadive · 21/06/2019 07:43

I would tell your husband immediately.

I had something malicious happen to me over a period of 6 months (not police called out) but random phone calls going dead in the evening. Anonymous emails, txts etc. My husband at the time (of 20 years) suggested that I had obviously upset someone and one of my ‘friends’ was trying to get back at me. (It was awful wracking my mind to think who it could be, half questioning friends) It turned out it was someone he had been seeing behind my back and they were trying to get back at him. They worked in HR at the same company as my ex and so she had been able to access my personal details, mobile email, home number.

Unless this was a police error, wrong house, wrong person which I would definitely follow up, I think this may be the only explanation, only a women scorned or crazily jealous might do this maliciously. Sorry op, it didn’t occur to me either.

DramaRamaLlama · 21/06/2019 07:46

The weirdest thing is the polices insistence that it's not malicious. How could it not be?!

lurkingfromhome · 21/06/2019 07:58

EleanorReally - where did you get that idea from? It was the other way around - the person doing the reporting passed OP's number on to the police. When OP said they couldn’t tell me who made the call and passed my number on to them "them" is referring to the police.

legolimb · 21/06/2019 08:05

Very strange OP. And scary.

Hope you get to the bottom of this.

ReanimatedSGB · 21/06/2019 08:11

Have you been involved in any... contentious internet discussions lately? And are you only the normal level of net-privacy-competent? It's not unknown for silly little boys who lose an argument online to pull shit like this (it was tried on me during the Jeffrey palaver, only I am (quite inadvertently) difficult to hunt down.)

Tawdrylocalbrouhaha · 21/06/2019 08:11

Actually, thinking about this...would anyone not call their DP in these circumstances? The elderly parents I can understand but if your DP was absent, and the police woke you up with a report that he hadn't seen you for weeks, and you were worried enough to ask a male friend to stay the night, would you seriously not just call your DP immediately?

Topseyt · 21/06/2019 08:12

How very strange and unsettling for you.

I can only think of either mistaken identity or a sick prank of some sort and I would be extremely frustrated that police cannot tell you who made the call (data protection etc.). It leaves you in limbo and probably unsure who to really trust. That will be the problem with that.

I do hope you get to the bottom of it soon.