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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

227 replies

ReginaFalangeee · 19/08/2022 08:36

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

OP posts:
Mummyratbag · 19/08/2022 10:43

Your poor mum. Phone calls at 3am and not usually good news, which means she would have been startled and probably expecting bad news, she would have been unlikely to have been thinking straight and then she hears a child's voice saying they are lost. She alone and thinking of her grandchild. It's understandable she did momentarily think about rushing out. Thankfully she was able to think rationally and call the police.

TartanGirl1 · 19/08/2022 10:47

I am sure it is a silly prank but I understand your concern.

Bananasalad · 19/08/2022 10:48

girlmom21 · 19/08/2022 10:42

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

Show quote history

Yes but they went round within 30 mins, took a statement and had a look in the local woods.

girlmom21 · 19/08/2022 10:48

@Bananasalad because they thought there could be a child lost in the woods...

Original poster
ReginaFalangeee · 19/08/2022 10:52

I should have put that I name changed for this post because I didn’t want it linked to my other threads.

OP posts:
Bananasalad · 19/08/2022 10:52

girlmom21 · 19/08/2022 10:48

@Bananasalad because they thought there could be a child lost in the woods...

And it's less trouble to contact network provider to trace number than start looking for a lost child in the woods ?
would have thought that would be the most efficient use of their time, to establish if it was a prank call first.

notacooldad · 19/08/2022 10:54

They're not going to bother for the sake of one prank call though
Nobody would know for sure it was a prank call until it is checked out. Can you imagine the outcry if something like this proved to be true and the police refuses to respond.
I've worked with young people and they are allowed to take their mobiles to bes with them. We have had ambulances and fire engines turn up to our place of work in the middle of the night while we were in bed. They still have to throughly check the building even though we all know we've been pranked.

girlmom21 · 19/08/2022 10:55

@Bananasalad a lost child in the woods is an emergency. If they'd started ringing around waiting for network providers a genuinely lost child could be dead in that time.

Bananasalad · 19/08/2022 11:02

a lost child in the woods is an emergency. If they'd started ringing around waiting for network providers a genuinely lost child could be dead in that time.

So they have started a man hunt on the basis of a 3am phone call, but don't bother to try and trace the number, because it might be a prank call and its a waste of resources ?

girlmom21 · 19/08/2022 11:06

Bananasalad · 19/08/2022 11:02

a lost child in the woods is an emergency. If they'd started ringing around waiting for network providers a genuinely lost child could be dead in that time.

So they have started a man hunt on the basis of a 3am phone call, but don't bother to try and trace the number, because it might be a prank call and its a waste of resources ?

Oh for god sake the search would be priority. They're not going to trace the call retrospectively once they've established there is no lost child.

FatherDougalsBlueJumper · 19/08/2022 11:12

It's a prank. We used to think it hilarious on sleepovers to go to the phone box down the road, call random landlines and say "Hello, your dogs in my garden" in the hope they would say "I don't have a dog" so we cold yell "well I don't have a garden!" And hang up.

Original poster
ReginaFalangeee · 19/08/2022 11:17

Ha ha ha . Thinking of starting a new thread on the best prank calls people have heard

OP posts:
CathyorClaire · 19/08/2022 11:18

Get your mum a phone with BT Call Guardian on it.

It automatically screens out known scam callers which is great but
she can also whitelist known contact numbers so they come straight through leaving all others to have to announce who they are and giving her the option either to take the call, divert it to answer phone or block the number.

BitFedUpTheNoo · 19/08/2022 11:24

Has a child ever gone missing in these woods before? Maybe it was a ghostly call from the past.....

Viviennemary · 19/08/2022 11:25

You did the right thing contacting the police. They have checked it out. If it happens again report it.

Bananasalad · 19/08/2022 11:25

Oh for god sake the search would be priority. They're not going to trace the call retrospectively once they've established there is no lost child.
Would have thought it would be helpful to initially establish the number.

  1. To speak to the child to see what the problem is and use the GPS on phones to track them.
  2. To establish if it's a prank call, before wasting their time.

And retrospectively so they could prosecute them for wasting police time and resources ?

Ritascornershop · 19/08/2022 11:26

I haven’t rtwt but if your mum would have gone if her car had been available then I’m a bit worried about what else she might do. She may be susceptible to elder fraud. There are so many awful people ringing vulnerable people and convincing them to send them money. Time to have a chat with her if you haven’t already.

WhereAreMyAirpods · 19/08/2022 11:28

barelyfunctional · 19/08/2022 08:39

it does sound like someone was trying to lure her into the woods in the middle of the night, presumably then realised she was planning to call the police and got out of there before they showed up.

Does it? It sounds like a prank to me.

School holidays. Kids on a sleepover. Dialing random numbers "for a laugh".

CorvusPurpureus · 19/08/2022 11:31

Pretty obviously a prank, but given your mum has a dgc in the age range, OP, I would want to know if dgc:

  1. has her ex-directory number in his phone
  2. is either a bit of an idiot/easily led OR vulnerable to bullies
  3. has access to his phone at night

It doesn't need to have been a physical sleepover for him to think it's funny or be coerced into giving out grandma's number to a peer at school for a prank.

Come to that, he doesn't even need to be online himself at 3am, if he & an acquaintance were swapping numbers at school.

How many adults does the average KS2 kid have landline numbers stored for? Mum, dad, possibly step parents - all the kid's home or too close to home. Who else? A grandparent.

I'd be eliminating dgc from the enquiry - might be he's been bullied into giving out the number or he might be thoughtless enough to think this hilarious, or he could have absolutely no involvement & it's complete coincidence - but it needs following up.

WhereAreMyAirpods · 19/08/2022 11:31

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.

Probably. But 99% of people would do as she did and phone the police, not jump in their car at 3am to go looking.

Thornethorn · 19/08/2022 11:33

If they're mentioning a local forest I would be concerned because how do they know it's close to her if they're completely random.

Toddlerteaplease · 19/08/2022 11:36

Very weird. Thank goodness she did t go and look.

girlmom21 · 19/08/2022 11:37

Bananasalad · 19/08/2022 11:25

Oh for god sake the search would be priority. They're not going to trace the call retrospectively once they've established there is no lost child.
Would have thought it would be helpful to initially establish the number.

  1. To speak to the child to see what the problem is and use the GPS on phones to track them.
  2. To establish if it's a prank call, before wasting their time.

And retrospectively so they could prosecute them for wasting police time and resources ?

But they didn't waste police time if they didn't call the emergency services

girlmom21 · 19/08/2022 11:37

Thornethorn · 19/08/2022 11:33

If they're mentioning a local forest I would be concerned because how do they know it's close to her if they're completely random.

Area code on the phone number.

FatherDougalsBlueJumper · 19/08/2022 11:46

Thornethorn · 19/08/2022 11:33

If they're mentioning a local forest I would be concerned because how do they know it's close to her if they're completely random.

It's very easy to call someone local randomly. For example my childhood phone number was similar to 01189 234 567 where the 01189 was the area code and the 234 was local to my particular set of streets. My best friend on the next set of streets over was 01189 235 678 for example.

All phones numbers completely made up in this example.