Little Upset

We all had a very traumatic morning at work involving a lunatic and the telephone. How does one get rid of an intentionally and verbally abusive telemarketing scammer whose number is blocked and won't give you any clue what he even really wants other than to abuse you? Granted, the scam wasn't intended for me but after the third time he called and his target refused to take his call he fell completely off his rocker and proceeded to harass, abuse and mistreat me and anyone else who dared answer one of his incessant calls.

Seriously, he was so abusive that each time he called I, or whoever answered, would end up hanging up on him only to have him immediately call back. At first he'd start out each phone call with, "Hello, how are you today, ma'am," only to then go completely nuts on us. After the first hour, though, he moved onto greeting us with "I'm still here." Is that creepy or what?

I was called a liar multiple times and accused of denying him his rights. Never mind the fact that he was clearly violating my rights. Never mind that he wouldn't even tell us who he was and what he expected us to do to get him to go away. He was clearly off his meds. I tried just letting the phone ring hoping he'd give up but it rang for so long I finally just started picking up and immediately setting it back down. This didn't work either.

I tried leaving the phone off the hook for a while but since it was a work phone, that was sort of unreasonable, too. People do need to reach us, after all.

Even the head cheese tried reasoning with him that this was a business telephone and he needed to cease immediately. We threatened to report him to the police but I suppose he knew that would go nowhere since he refused to give us his name, what he wanted and what number.

Ya'll know I'm not a confrontational person at all. I'd just as soon wallow in misery than ever confront another human being about their crappy behavior. But I had to get aggressive with him to the point where my hands were shaking and I could hardly breathe. I was just so taken aback by this sort of behavior. All of us were completely flummoxed.

All this was very stressful to all of us and I feel SO BAD for the poor co-worker who he intended to scam because she feels so guilty for all this happening because of her. I kept telling her that he was just nuts and it wasn't her fault. There's no way anyone could have predicted that he'd behave so reprehensibly. But I know she still feels bad. Poor thing.

Currently our office phone is disconnected while security attempts to put a trace on where the calls are originating from or whatever it is they think they can do to get this unmedicated fruit loop off our backs.


Meanwhile, my hands have finally stopped shaking.