To be a bit creeped out by this phone call in the middle of the night?

[ReginaFalangeee]

Sorry bit of a long story-

My mum received a phone call on the landline in the dead of night, around 3am.

She rushed downstairs to answer thinking one of the family had been in an accident.

When she answered there was a child
on the line (she thinks older primary school age boy) saying they were lost in a popular local wooded area, could she come and pick them up?

Apparently they didn’t sound scared and were very matter of fact about it but my mum was really worried about a child being lost and alone in the middle of the night and says against her better judgment she would have left to look for them had her car not been in for repairs.

According to my mum, this is a transcript of the call, from what she can remember.

Child- I’m lost down local wooded area, can you come and pick me up?

Mum- thinking this was grandson, (Grandson’s name) is that you, are you ok? How did you get down there? Where are your mum and dad?

Child -I don’t know, I’m lost. Can you pick me up?

Mum- realising it’s not grandson. What’s your name? Are you hurt? What’s happened? Where are your mum and dad?

Child- repeats I’m lost and stuck down local wooded area. Can you come and get me.

Mum- why didn’t you phone your mum and dad or the police? How did you get my number? I think I’d be better to call the police to come and help look for you.

Child- hangs up.

She phoned the police immediately who came round within 30mins and they took a statement the went and had a good look round the woods. No one was there.

The police came back to my mums after checking and asked if anyone would play a prank on her. If she’d fallen out with my one recently or if anyone would have a reason to make a phone call like that. My mum couldn’t think of anyone/or any reason.

They tried to call 1471 and trace the number but it was withheld. Also the weird thing is my mums number is ex-directory so unless they dialled a random number they would have had to know it.

My mum doesn’t seemed to phased by it and has written it off as a prank call but I can’t help being very creeped out by it. I think someone was either trying to lure her down the woods or was checking if she was home.

What do you think?

YABU - just a prank call, no need to be alarmed.

YANBU- definitely sinister

A) its not a child older than primary school is at the very earliest 12 but majoratively teens.

B) what kid would have a mobile phone but doesnt have their parents/emergancy numbers saved

C) 999 is NOT police (no kid is going to have the non emergancy local police number), they would send rescue teams

D) if the teen had signal they could use google, GPS, Facebook or any other free downloadable app or search what to do

A lot of people saying my Mum was being stupid.

Can I just say she didn’t actually go, she told me she though about it and might have.

She’s an older lady who thought a child was missing. It was 3am and she was woken suddenly in a bit of a panic. Maybe she wasn’t thinking straight. Maybe in the cold
light if day her reaction would have been different!

Are you always so unkind?

She didn't have to know about any trends @girlmom21 because she did the sensible thing & called the cops. You seem determined to invest this mundane (if annoying) prank with more drama than it warrants.

You lot are weird.
I've said it was almost certainly a prank.
I just don't think OP's mom did anything wrong. I don't think she was stupid or irrational. She did what she though was right at the time.

It's easy to judge that at 10am in the cold light of day but when you're awoken at 3am your responses would've been different too.

Prank. Clearly.

It’s little wonder that so many children grow up with anxiety when there are so many adults who see the absolute worst in everything, turn any situation into something with sinister intent.

Reminds me of someone I used to work with whose husband was paranoid to the extent she was not allowed to use a bank card but had to use cash. Wasn’t allowed to carry a rucksack because she had been told by him that muggers would slash it open to steal whatever was in it. He transferred his anxiety very successfully on to her.

As for the grandmother not knowing about tiktok trends, you don’t have to know about tiktok to know about prank calls. Prank calls are as old as telephones. Chances are the OP’s mother did them as a child as wel. Most people did.

Sounds like a pre-recorded 'joke' call to me. They follow a standard script, ie firstly telling you something, then giving a vague response to a question, then repeating the first bit again. I've heard these before (my DC and their mates used to set each other up with them 🙄) and they sound really genuine until you play them back a few times.

There's loads of kids entertainment videos on YouTube that centre around things happening at 3am. My DD is always saying 'can I stay up till 3 am' and 'what happens at 3 am'. I bet it's kids on a sleepover, pranking.

My little monkey rang 911 too 🫣

I didn't RTFT

It's either someone trying to lure her to the woods to either burgle her house or mug her or its kids doing some stupid 3am tiktok challenge.

Either way calling police is the best thing to do.

Are you new? People are dicks on here ignore them.

Your poor mum, I would've shit me pants!

A few years ago I had someone ring our landline about midnight and said 'hello Mummy'. It was definitely an adult putting on a child's voice. They hung up, that was all they said. That was a prank, and this was a prank. A really messed up one but still a prank. Glad your Mum is calm about it.

Glad your lovely mum is ok. I'm sure it was just a prank but still a horrible experience for her, especially after running to the phone dreading the worst at 3am. Can you do something with her to cheer her up today? She may well be in mild shock so tell her not to feel bad if she happens to feel a bit weepy - that's completely normal, and just a sign of being a good kind person.

Your mum 100% did the right thing! The fact that she even momentarily considered leaving the house shows she's a kind lady who was genuinely concerned about a possibly lost child. In a situation like that, a bit bleary-eyed and confused at just being woken up, most of us would also have a range of thoughts before usually settling on the common sense answer. Glad she's not too shaken up by it!!

If they wanted to lure her out of the house it would have been far easier to make up a story in the evening, when she is likely to go out, rather than 3am when no one is likely to leave their house

People (and pensioners in particular) are more likely to be disorientated, not think straight and do reckless things if woken up suddenly at 3am. Not so much in the evening, when they are wide awake

Ha ha ha are you ok?

seems like you have a lot of anger

Thanks for everyone’s kind messages.

My mum is absolutely fine, she’s laughing about it now.

The police have been back in touch this morning to check she’s ok. They’ve said they haven’t had any other reports of things like this happening recently and think it was a one off. Probably teens messing about.

I think it’s wised her up a bit so I doubt she be taken in by it if happened again.

i do think most people would be a bit spooked by a 3am phone call from a child or someone pretending to be a child lost in the woods.

Even though it's a prank, that would still creep me out in the middle of the night and play on my mind for a bit.
I would invest in a phone that screens out withheld and unknown numbers. That way if it is someone phoning at that time, you know it's genuine.

I think this is a more sophisticated and modern version of when we used to ring the operator from phone boxes as kids and tell them to get off the line as a train was coming.

Kid was probably on a sleepover.

Glad your mum can laugh about it now. That would definitely spook me out! Yes I did prank calls when I was a teenager but more on the stupid side (asking pubs to shout out stupid names ala simpsons) not freaking people out in the middle of the night. That's just nasty, not funny.

I would get your Mum's number changed all the same. There are more coincidences here than with a normal prank.

It's a bit weird alright, thankfully her car was out of action

Also can't the Police find out the number even if it's withheld to the public?

I’m ashamed to say I definitely made some prank calls of this ilk when I was in primary school. Obviously wised up quite quickly that it’s actually incredibly nasty and cruel, but I’d say that’s likely what it was. Glad your mum is ok OP, I don’t think many people would be immediately thinking straight being woken up by the phone at 3am.

They're not going to bother for the sake of one prank call though