Was this a prank call or a young woman in distress?

[Mixidoo]

I was awoken by a phone call last night at 3:30am. It was a mobile number I didn’t recognise and a young English woman (teenager?) sounding very distressed.

She kept calling me mum, she was very upset and said she’d been out with her friends and just wanted to come home. She wouldn’t answer my questions, although I don’t think it was a recording. She then said a man had followed her into the toilets. DH said it was a prank/scam and I hung up, she then called back and still wouldn’t answer me.

I got worried and hung up and called 999 and said she sounded like she was in trouble. They said they’d try to locate her. I didn’t sleep well at all and called 101 to chase it up this morning, they said they’d located her and her local police had been involved.

looking at the number this morning it’s the same as mine, only the last four digits are in a slightly different order… Was it a prank, someone mentally unwell or a young woman in genuine trouble? Really shaken by it.

It sounds genuine, well done for calling the police and I’m glad they located her.

Sounds awful 😞

Really confusing and quite chilling. She wouldn’t talk to me, more talking ‘at’ me, very disorienting at 3 in the morning.

Sometimes if you buy 2 phones at the same time you end up with very similar numbers, which makes me think it was genuine. She probably has a similar number to her mum and was trying to reach her.

You did the right thing imo. Probably just a drunk teenager being out of control but you never know, it could well have been a dangerous situation. Well done.

Young people with autism often talk at you rather than to you. She could have been in shutdown mode or certainly vulnerable so well done for acting.

Sounds genuine, at that time she was probably pissed up and confused so you did the right thing reporting it to the police

I was worried they wouldn’t be able to find her with just a mobile number but I’m guessing they could track it using gps or something? I’m glad they took it seriously.

None of us can know the truth in this situation OP, but you did the right thing calling 999 in the circumstances you describe. It's important not to dismiss things like that as 'a prank'.

Witnesses - mothers - who saw this boy naked in their street say they dismissed it as 'a prank'. If they had intervened, gone to help him and/or just immediately called 999, he would almost certainly still be alive today. Instead, his naked body was found 6 days later in a storm drain:
mobile.twitter.com/MarymoBelfast/status/1370453351616425985

Later this month, it will be 2 years since young Noah Donohoe disappeared from that street. His mother Fiona Donohoe is still having to fight for the truth about how, why and even when her beloved and only child died, and for justice for him. The police have applied for 4 files from their deeply flawed investigation to be kept secret and this has been supported by the coroner involved. Brandon Lewis, (Conservative MP for Great Yarmouth and Northern Ireland Secretary) is the government minister who has the power to grant or deny the application for secrecy. It is unfortunately likely that he will grant it, and soon, as the next hearing in the coroners court is 1 July. If anyone reading would like to help this grieving mother, links to Mumsnet threads and to her petition on Change can be easily found on this Mumsnet thread here:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/petitions_noticeboard/4525759--THREAD-2-Will-you-spare-five-minutes-to-help-the-lovely-Noah-Donohoe-get-the-justice-he-deserves-and-to-support-his-mummy-Fiona-in-getting-the-truth-about-what-happened-to-her-beloved-son
At the very least, please will you consider joining the 307,148 who have already signed his mother's petition against the files being kept secret? Thank you.

Definitely sounds like a young woman in distress. She may have had alcohol or drugs in her system and had difficulty articulating herself - but she recognized her fear and knew she needed help. So glad they were able to get in touch with her.

What’s strange though is that most people don’t dial numbers, they just click names.

You did the right thing.

I didn’t sleep well at all and called 101 to chase it up this morning, they said they’d located her and her local police had been involved.

You will probably never know if it was a prank or genuine.
The police took it seriously and have made contact so if it was genuine, she got help and if it was a prank, they will have dealt with it.

The police won’t be able to tell you, but you did the right thing 100% even if I was 99% sure it was a prank I wouldn’t not be able to phone the police.

Where did she get your number?

Surely she would have just pressed "mum" in her contacts?

There is a scam where the number calling you is v similar to your own so you think that you recognise the number and are more likely to pick up

She might have entered the number incorrectly in the first place when she created the contact, or she might have been so drunk she barely knew what she was doing.

OP, you say you called 101 to chase it up this morning, they said they’d located her and her local police had been involved so I doubt it was a prank call. I imagine it was was a very drunk/stoned teenager in a bit of a state.

I once had a young girl knock on my door in the early hours of the morning who was so drunk that she couldn’t remember where she was trying to get to or the names of the friends she’d been separated from. She was in completely the opposite side of the city from where her friends lived. She could barely process anything we said to her. We had to phone the police to come and get her. This sounds like a similar thing but by phone.

If she wasn’t answering you, she may not have been able to hear you - phone volume turned down, phone connected to Bluetooth earbuds that she wasn’t actually wearing, maybe? Especially if she was drunk or confused.

Even if it was a prank, you did the right thing so well done.

Sounds like a scam, hoping you would send her money or something. She doesn't recognize her mother's voice? Can't answer any of your questions? Can't give you one clue how to help her? I would have just blocked the number. Something similar happened to a friend and eventually they were asking for money 😒

Me and DH have the same number except the last one is different as we got our phones at the same time, I'd go with it being a genuine distress call. Well done for phoning the police.

I have had that twice and the caller does not respond to your questions because it is a stupid prank call.

One was an upset girl who couldn't get a taxi home and was walking down a dark road and a man was following her and the other was more or less the same scenario that you had.

Well as the police said they found her thankfully everyone in the world is not like
@Mally100

Well the OP says the police traced the girl, so if it was genuine she got help, if it was a prank she will ( I hope) have got a bollocking . OP in either event you did the right thing.

Oh get over yourself. The op didn't confirm that it was a genuine distress call. As I posted, i know someone who actually had something similar and it turned out it was a scam/prank. And another poster also confirmed they received 2 of these calls.

Prank call or genuine you did the right thing by immediately calling the police. Well done.

Might have borrowed a phone to make the call and put the number in incorrectly.

This reminds me of one time many years ago I was in bed and I heard someone trying to get in through the front door using a key. I froze then went to look. It was a teenager in a prom dress. I made sure no one else was about then spoke to her. She was absolutely paralytic. She had gone to her leaver's ball and was meant to be staying with a friend, but she had gone to the wrong block of flats. She said it was fine and she'd just sleep in the corridor.

At the time I didn't live in a safe area at all and it would've been dangerous for her to do that. I spoke to her friends on the phone and they weren't OK with her staying at mine. Anyway, I decided to let her stay (I know it could've been a scam) but I actually locked the front door so she was locked in. Thankfully I had a weird door where you couldn't actually open it from the inside without a key. I took my passport and other documents (I kept everything in a shoebox at that point) and put them all under my bed. It was 100% genuine and in the morning she left. I don't think I'd do this now actually but I hated the thought of a drunk 18 year old wandering about/trying to sleep in the corridor of flats!

@MNettersForNoahAndFiona how awful, I’ll sign.

Prank or not, you did the right thing contacting the police

Update - this has been playing on my mind all day. I called the police on 101 again as was concerned incase it was a scam, a weird prank or if it was genuine wanted to know if she was ok. The call handler was really helpful, said that it wasn’t a scam, that the police had managed to speak to the woman and her local police are following it up. Phew.