By INGRID MCCLEARY
I used to sympathize with telephone solicitors. But not anymore. Not since that one solicitor's malicious call.
After having dinner interrupted countless times by solicitors, we decided to utilize the answering machine. Dinner is our family oasis. It is the one time we're all together for 20 minutes. This is where we pray and share our exciting or sad news. It is ours alone.
The other day, though, we left the machine off because my husband was expecting an important phone call. Before he could take his first bite, the phone rang.
He left and quickly returned, saying, "Solicitor."
He sat again. The phone rang again. He walked back and turned on the machine, but stayed to listen to the message in case it was his important call. When he returned, his expression was an odd mixture of anger and surprise. "I can't believe it--that was the same solicitor. Know what she said? 'William McClearly, we have your address. We're going to send a bomb to your house. You better move within 72 hours.' "
As soon as my husband had heard the words, he had grabbed the phone but the vindictive solicitor had already hung up. I was stunned. The kids were round-eyed. "That must be illegal," I said. "Call the police from the other phone line. They can use 'call return' on our main line and find out who's making the call."
My husband, acting in his role as "family protector," dashed into the office and dialed "call return" himself. We got a message that the line was busy. I wasn't sure at this point if we could still call the police, or indeed if we even should. I was sure, however, that my kids were getting scared. One even began to cry.
We hastened to reassure them. "It's just an angry solicitor. She's getting back at us for hanging up on her."
"But how do you know for sure?" one asked.
"Because they asked for Dad by his legal name," I said. "And they mispronounced it as well," my husband added.
The phone rang again. We all jumped, our dinner growing colder by the second.
My husband answered it and returned, saying, "It was just a telephone recording telling us the line was still busy."
By now, the episode seemed absurd. My husband and I slowly began eating our cold dinner. And the children, seeing us outwardly calm, began to eat, too.
Dinner was ours again.
Later that evening though, while my family slept, I thought again of those malevolent words and felt an anger bloom in my chest. How dare she scare my children like that! Especially with the recent bomb attacks! If it isn't illegal, then it should be! At least that person should be fired!
The following day, I called the phone company and was informed that most phone companies offer "call tracing" service. Once activated, if you get a threatening phone call, you hang up and initiate "call tracing." The information is routed to the police, who follow up on it and take action, if necessary. There is a small surcharge each time a trace is employed, so it's best to use tracing only for persistent prank calls or, in this case, bomb threats.
I then called Sunnyvale Public Safety, where Officer Carrigan informed me that if we'd gotten the name of the organization, they would have prosecuted the perpetrator for making a bomb threat. We have the threat recorded on our machine, and if that person ever calls again, she'll be nabbed. But had we been aware of this service beforehand, she would have already been caught. And stopped.
Now you know. Forewarned is forearmed. Solicitors already intrude on your privacy; to threaten that security is illegal. Sunnyvale remains one of the safest big cities in the country. We can walk our streets in relative comfort. Let's extend that comfort to our phone lines as well.
Ingrid McCleary is a Sunnyvale resident and a columnist for The Sun.
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, April 2, 1997.
©1997 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.