Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
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:
HystericalAndUseless · 20/08/2022 22:09

Two options:

  1. Someone was trying to get her out of the house for a long time (she would be endlessly searching for a child) in order to burgle the house. This is probably more likely than that they were trying to hurt your mum.

  2. Some kid misdialled. The way it sounds, they obviously didn't think they were calling a stranger (assuming it was genuinely a lost kid calling). If a kid was lost it seems a bit of a stretch that they would dial a random number deliberately but you never know. Or, as your mum says, a prank call - but it is a pretty poor prank inasmuch as it's not very imaginative, just repeating the same thing and not offering any narrative. Not very believable.

I would have probably just hung up. But yeah, if someone knew her age, they'd think the older generation might be gullible/kind enough to go out and look.

There must be some technology that exists to find the number of a particular house even though it is ex directory.

LeeN637 · 20/08/2022 22:16

If the child actually said they were lost in "local wooded area", then kids on a sleepover prank is probably most likely.

Nicknacky · 20/08/2022 22:22

Not all Scottish schools have went back yet. Mine don’t go back till Monday.

Tomasinabombadil · 20/08/2022 22:45

I remember receiving a call way back in the 1980’s. Answered the phone during the evening here in the UK and ended up having a conversation with a person & others in their background from Sydney, Australia. They were students just playing around dialling random numbers. They often played this game and had spoken to various people around the world. I dread to think how much their phone bill was.🤔😂

Johnnysgirl · 20/08/2022 22:50

Quia · 19/08/2022 08:56

I think that's incredibly unlikely. Single woman gets a call like that in the middle of the night, which is the more likely outcome - that she jumps into her car to go to the woods, or that she calls the police? If they wanted to lure her out they would at least have pretended to be a relative.

Show quote history

Well, op says her Mum says against her better judgment she would have left to look for them had her car not been in for repairs 🤷🏻‍♀️

pinkpantherpink · 20/08/2022 22:53

Thanks for posting OP. That's well creepy. Glad the police have advised her

Scammers, if that's what's behind this, are devious and persuasive. This story may become a legend, like a "body" on the road which turns out to be a doll etc. A scam to steal your car, or worse.

But scammers have been conning people for ages out of money etc. So this is not so wild or stupid

Glad your mum is safe x

dcthatsme · 20/08/2022 23:11

It does sound like a prank call which I admit to making with my cousin many a time many years ago. Sorry it freaked your mum out.

Johnnysgirl · 20/08/2022 23:13

It's quite alarming that there are people who would actually drive to the woods in the middle of the night if someone rang and asked them to Confused

CorvusPurpureus · 20/08/2022 23:21

It's categorically NOT going to be burglars.

They call at 3am. The 'mark' shoots off to rescue imaginary child in local wood. Phew! Coast is clear!

Except a) the mark has almost certainly called the police EVEN IF they've been silly enough to belt off to the dodgy local Dingley Dell in search of the random child - police will have told OP to sit tight anyway. So the property is now being observed - probably by an officer parking up conspiculously near by. Not a great set of circumstances for burglary.p

B) 3am is a terrible time to conduct a burglary. It's getting light in summer & people are stirring within the hour. Proper burglars - mostly opportunistic teenagers - break in when you're at work or, better, on holiday, & they've noted that your house is empty. They do not draw attention to your house with this sort of Blair Witch nonsense.

This is pranking. Nasty pranking, but just that.

MondayMoan · 20/08/2022 23:41

It will be a hoax.

It is scary to receive an uncertain call like that in the middle of the night though. Please OP tell your mum not to take any notice of random calls being received and reassure her she did the right thing reporting to the police. Once this is done it's the police responsibility and not hers.

Frances0911 · 21/08/2022 03:00

Rather than say local woods, you'd say the name of the woods, so I am thinking random prank call.

Kassiopeia · 21/08/2022 08:36

Weird, if someone is 'lost' in a large woodland how would anyone know where to look to find them, if it's not a large woodland it would be easy to find your way out so why would you be 'lost'?

Obviously, a prank call possibly, to lure a person out of the house but for what purpose or maybe just to creep them out.

dudsville · 21/08/2022 08:43

Ew, very creepy, and now suddenly with this thread my adverts here have gone from lovelt clothes to an advert for "SAW:Would you like to play a game?". Ffs.

Autumnmoons · 21/08/2022 08:44

Yes, they are 🫠😅. This sounds SO scary for you all, if it had happened to my mum, I’d be so worried like you are / were. Very upsetting and creepy, you’re not unreasonable to feel like this. Just wanted to say how awful and send you love x

Random789 · 21/08/2022 08:51

It's a shame that Mumsnet polls don't allow a third option, because I'd definitely have voted for 'First in a series of increasingly terrifying events in which ancient Babylonian demon acquires first the voice and then the physical form of an angelic child, to wreak havoc on an unsuspecting town.'

zingally · 21/08/2022 10:05

A prank.

Kids on a summer holiday sleepover doing a dare. They just dialled a random sequence of numbers until one connected. It wouldn't have been a kid voice for someone trying to lure your mum out for whatever reason.
If your mum seems satisfied with the response, I'd leave it.

LoisLane66 · 21/08/2022 10:31

3am is NOT getting light in August. Dawn is about 05.30 in England.

LoisLane66 · 21/08/2022 10:34

Sunrise/dawn this morning in Guildford Surrey was 05.58. It was not 'getting light' at 3am.

sue20 · 21/08/2022 15:14

This is a bit of an unpleasant thing to suggest but grandson has her phone number? Is it OP's son? If not could he have got together with a mate in a sleepover or something and thought it would be a funny thing to do? Has OP checked with siblings? Even though young could they have found a bit of alcohol in the house and had a naughty sip or two? Kids can do really terrible things without realising impact. The knowledge of the phone number and that it was a mother in the house rather looks as though it could be within the family somehow?

Rmw12 · 21/08/2022 15:27

I agree this is creepy and I don’t think you’re overreacting. Possibly a prank but also there’s a small chance it was someone trying to lure her out to the woods or ensure she’s out so that they could break into her house. Either way i hope that the police trace the number and contact the person. Either to warn the children, if it was a prank, not to do something like that again, as it could have led to your mum being in trouble if she drove out to woods at 3am. Or they track down the person who did it for sinister reasons and can do something about it. I’m glad your mum has taken it so well and I’m sure it would make her avoid falling for something like this in future.

Lucinder · 22/08/2022 00:10

Did anyone else get a bit reminded of black eyed children tales?
In all seriousness though, please tell your mum never to go out to meet anyone- it may also be a good idea to somehow give any future caller the impression that she is not alone.

Marvellousmadness · 22/08/2022 03:29

They tried getting her out of the house

or

Just a prank call

Use your common sense

tomorrowalready · 22/08/2022 04:03

Does anyone else ever think some threads seem to be by people trying out story lines? This one reminds me of another about six weeks ago where a couple were woken up by a return call from 111 in early morning about an alledged over dose taker having rung for help.
Strong denial by poster that anyone had taken anything or rung for help.
I lost that thread but was very curious to know if it was ever resolved?

Tiani4 · 22/08/2022 04:05

Yanbu
It may be a prank call by silly children but it's a pretty shit one to do to an older lady

It's manipulative and cruel

And if it wasn't a prank call then it's pretty sinister way to try to lure an older lady out to the woods
Has she someone who can stay with her ? Can you put cctv up in her house?

If I were your mum, having worried about this young child out lost in the woods wanting his mum to come pick him up,then to find out it was fake,
That would totally freak me out,

I would absolutely block all numbers that were with held
I guess that was first giveaway a child doesn't have a withheld mobile number is they have a mobile

Tiani4 · 22/08/2022 04:11

Has she someone who can stay with her ? Can you put cctv up in her house? I meant with her permission of course

The more you think about it though? The less likely it'd be a sinister strategy as burglars would just wait until she actually went out if they had been watching her, rather than a 3am weird phone call ploy which is unlikely to be successful ( how would an older lady find her way round the woods in the dark?)

So I guess your mum knows a couple horrible boys who think that was funny