Wrong Number Phone Call Results In Shooting; Some People Need To Chill Out

from the oops dept

Every so often, I get wrong number phone calls (one of my numbers is apparently listed in a LensCrafters book of other stores, so I get calls from LensCrafter stores asking if I’ve got things in stock). It’s not that difficult to say “you have a wrong number” and everyone goes on their merry way. Apparently, not for some. In Georgia, someone accidentally dialed a wrong number, and it resulted in someone getting shot. Apparently, following the wrong number, angry phone calls and texts were exchanged between the two guys, before they agreed to meet in a drug store parking lot, where one of them got shot (and the other got arrested). The story doesn’t indicate who dialed the wrong number first, but, seriously, would it have been that hard to have just said, “hey, wrong number” and left it at that?

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Comments on “Wrong Number Phone Call Results In Shooting; Some People Need To Chill Out”

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46 Comments
Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:

No, I think that copyright violation is just the “good neighborhood” extention of a culture of disrespect that is going on right now. People disrespect other people’s space, their rights, their time, and in the more, umm, “urban” setting, the problems are resolved with violence and guns.

Copyright violation is done out of the same spirit of disrespect. It doesn’t matter what the other person’s rights are, it doesn’t matter what is right or wrong, it all about you, your wants, you “needs”.

In this case, call it disrespect a wrong number call. You have to imagine there being a “quit calling my number chump” the elevated. It all comes from a disrespect towards others. Nobody wants to back down, nobody wants to be weak, and nobody cares about anyone else’s rights or space.

Dark Helmet (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re: Re:

“No, I think that copyright violation is just the “good neighborhood” extention of a culture of disrespect that is going on right now. People disrespect other people’s space, their rights, their time, and in the more, umm, “urban” setting, the problems are resolved with violence and guns.”

Look, I don’t mean to overreact here, but that sounded an awful lot like a coded way of saying “white kids infringe, the darkies pop caps in each other”. In any case, while I have to agree that we as a culture have become more and more egocentric and disrespectful as a whole, I think that whole includes BOTH sides of the copyright question.

It’s weird, because, like most every other polarized argument, there is a middle ground that is probably correct, but you’ve got two sides that are so afraid of giving any ground for a variety of reasons that you end up with two ridiculous positions and no reasonable ones. I disagree with probably most people on this site, but I don’t advocate the complete dismisal of copyright, nor do I think it is okay to infringe on another’s copyright. 0 years copyright law is just as ridiculous, IMO, as life plus 70 or whatever it is. In my opinion, the argument should be being waged between copyright for 2 years and 10, not 0 and forever minus a day.

So, anonymous coward, where do we two on opposite sides begin the bidding? Who gives ground first?

“Copyright violation is done out of the same spirit of disrespect.”

As murder? Surely you jest. More specifically, given your odd “urban” euphamism, let’s talk drive by shootings, possibly the most disrespectful action possible (next to, maybe, genocide). What could be more disrespectful than randomly shooting into a crowd of people HOPING to hit your target and not minding the innocents, all of whom live in or near YOUR neighborhood? And THAT compares IN ANY WAY to copyright infringement? See what I mean about ridiculous ends of the spectrum of argument?

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:2 Re:

What you don’t realize is that you just did the disrespecting thing yourself. I said “good neighborhood” and you immediately typecast a bad neighborhood as a place where “darkies pop caps into each other”. That is your disrespectful way of looking at it. Reality is colorblind, and the popping of caps doesn’t require any particular skin color to make it work (but obviously, even your choice of phrase is there).

Copyright violation is an act of disrespect, no different from pissing on someone’s car or painting graffiti on your school. It’s all the same stuff, it is not giving a crap about the other person, and more importantly, getting upset when you get caught and get called out on it.

The rest of your post is a wild strawman. Perhaps if the “downloaders” didn’t use civilians as cover, there wouldn’t be the need to even ask the question.

Again, it’s all about respect. Snitches get stitches, a coded way of saying “we know we are breaking the rules, screw you”.

Dark Helmet (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re:3 Re:

“What you don’t realize is that you just did the disrespecting thing yourself. I said “good neighborhood” and you immediately typecast a bad neighborhood as a place where “darkies pop caps into each other”.”

Sigh…no, not even close. What I said was, particularly with the “umm, “urban” setting” comment that’s what it sounded like YOU were saying. It’s pretty clear from my tone, and the fact that I prefaced with “I don’t mean to overreact here” that I was AGAINST such a distinction.

But hey, nice try. You know what’s disrespectful? LYING. Pretending like you didn’t already know what I just explained and trying to paint someone as a racist for no good reason. THAT’S disrespectful…

“Copyright violation is an act of disrespect, no different from pissing on someone’s car or painting graffiti on your school.”

Hey, now at least we’re in the ballpark where I can basically agree with you. But MURDER? C’mon, you HAVE to know that those things are different on a huge level…

“The rest of your post is a wild strawman.”

Er, positing that perhaps both sides have arguments in the extreme and need to come to some sort of sensical compromise is a strawman? I’m trying to be Gandhi here, and you’re attacking? That’s really kind of weird…

“Perhaps if the “downloaders” didn’t use civilians as cover, there wouldn’t be the need to even ask the question.”

I have no idea what you’re talking about in the first part of the sentence, nor what question you’re referring to. Was it my question as to where we meet in the middle, who gives ground first? You’re not making much sense here, I’m afraid…

“Again, it’s all about respect. Snitches get stitches, a coded way of saying “we know we are breaking the rules, screw you”.”

Which part of I’m against infringing filesharing aren’t you understanding? I AGREE with you there. Infringing is disrespectful to artists and/or creators. Even if it’s done by a fan, and the fan LOVES and respects the artists work, still the disregard of their lawfully given rights is disrespectful.

What I don’t believe is that the disrespect is on the same level as murder, puppy cutting, or raporism.

Sometimes the arguments around here get really weird, as if you’re arguing with what you THINK I’m thinking instead of what I’m saying…

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:4 Re:

What I don’t believe is that the disrespect is on the same level as murder, puppy cutting, or raporism.

The issue is that on a grander scale, they all stem from the same mentality. The murdering types will use violence, the non-violent types will run TPB. In the end, the intents are very much the same, to do what they want no matter who tells them what is wrong, and then they are shocked when they are held liable for their actions.

Disrepect is just that, no matter the level. Society just isn’t polite or concerned with other people’s rights anymore.

kirillian (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re:5 Re:

Seriously man? It’s gotta take a ton of arrogance to generalize and state that you have any clue about the attitudes of millions of people that you’ve never even met. It would be one thing if you said, “My buddy down the street has this attitude thing that makes him disrespect copyright laws by going to TPB, and there’s this other dude I know that just shoots people when he gets pissed off”, but to say that all of these other people that you know have the same mentality? That’s quite a step. Must be an AC thing.

It shouldn’t surprise me, but it still does to see someone have such arrogance. Don’t get me wrong…I believe that the average person is perfectly capable of watching another person and making competent judgments about their attitudes and personality (heck, how else would we walk down the street and decide to trust those around us? We HAVE to make SOME judgments). Yours, however, have no basis in either observation or science…so unless you can come up with another source, the only other one (in my experience) that I’ve seen people draw from is belief – either religious or because Daddy always said so.

If some sort of belief is the basis of what you think, then you need to be honest about that to yourself first and then to the rest of us. Otherwise, we can’t have any sort of reasonable discussion. The funny part about discussion is that you really can’t good discussion unless people have reasoning/logic skills and are honest with one another.

To address your points, I agree 100% that society as a whole shows very little respect for other people. But, most of the time, I think the issue is not with the other person not giving you respect. The issue is with the entitlement attitude that many people have that they DESERVE respect. I’m sorry, but life doesn’t work that way. You almost always have to earn respect and loyalty from people. I don’t think that’s a new thing at all. I think the NEW thing is the entitlement attitude that people have.

Funny thing is that it’s these “entitled” people that are demanding that the rest of us give up our rights as citizens because they can’t sit on their fat arses and make money off of us. The rest of the business world has to work all day to earn their pay. But, many in the content and recording industries believe that they are entitled to make a certain amount of money at a certain rate. That’s fine…if they provide me with the product that I want so that I buy it. Otherwise, my money is going elsewhere…and yes, I will rip my CDs and DVDs to my hard drive to back them up and play them in the manner of my choosing…

If that’s an entitled attitude or the “mentality” that you speak of, well…you need to get a grip. You can try and tell me that everything’s ok because I don’t download from TPB all the time or I don’t share all my stuff with the whole world, but it’s not really…see…after you come for the guy next to me because he’s not paying you enough money for the content he doesn’t want, then you’re gonna come for me next…

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:6 Re:

You can try and tell me that everything’s ok because I don’t download from TPB all the time or I don’t share all my stuff with the whole world, but it’s not really

It isn’t that you download or don’t download, it’s the concept that you ever CONSIDER it. There is a basic level moral change in people that means that taking something for free (pretty much stealing, but nicely renamed “infringing” or “torrenting”) is even considered. It’s like standing in a store and considering shoplifting. The difference of course is that online, there is no shopkeeper / employee / security cameras to see what you are doing. So it comes down strictly to your own moral fibre.

fter you come for the guy next to me because he’s not paying you enough money for the content he doesn’t want, then you’re gonna come for me next

Sorry, but I am not coming for anyone. Mike seems to be tossing around the disinformation that all ACs work for the industry. He doesn’t know just how wrong he is. It’s a spectacular piece of marketing though for this site, turning certain posters into easily hated strawmen that can be shot down, rather than taking the time to think about the posts.

Oh yeah, Dark Helmet, if you had taken the time to read the story, you would notice that the guy they arrested isn’t a “darkie”. Urban doesn’t have anything to do with skin color, it has everything to do with environment and attitude.

Dark Helmet (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re:5 Re:

“Also…I should add that Dark Helmet’s comments are extra good today. And actually serious?!?! for the rare occasion…”

After a couple months break between finishing the last book, I’ve begun writing a sequel. Long story short, I tend to be more introspective and thoughtful when I’m spending a couple of hours a day both writing and researching thoughtful topics…

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re: Re:

I think that copyright violation is just the “good neighborhood” extention of a culture of disrespect that is going on right now.

Our culture of disrespect comes from the top down. I mean we’re governed by a bunch of schmucks who represent their corporate campaign financiers (on the national level). With rights being eroded for the good of a few archaic business models, it doesn’t surprise me at all that people lose respect for law or government these days.

Josh in CharlotteNC (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re: Re:

“Copyright violation is done out of the same spirit of disrespect. It doesn’t matter what the other person’s rights are, it doesn’t matter what is right or wrong, it all about you, your wants, you “needs”.
Nobody wants to back down, nobody wants to be weak, and nobody cares about anyone else’s rights or space.”

And of course we all know the RIAA and MPAA respect everyone’s rights, such as 6 year olds, 90 year old grandmothers and dead people.

Copyright violation isn’t in the same ballpark, city, state, or even country as MURDER. The ones who want it to be are the ones you shill for.

Used to be that music and culture were there for the good of all. Before copyright. If you want to talk about disrespect, perhaps you need to look closer at the ones who decided ‘intangible goods’ needed to be locked up so only a fraction of people could enjoy them, and those who continue to try to push more onerous terms.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:2 Re:

And of course we all know the RIAA and MPAA respect everyone’s rights, such as 6 year olds, 90 year old grandmothers and dead people.

Congrats on swallowing the piracy party line whole, without thinking. It truly shows you to be a deep, thinking person. WOuld you like some more koolaid?

Before copyright. If you want to talk about disrespect, perhaps you need to look closer at the ones who decided ‘intangible goods’ needed to be locked up so only a fraction of people could enjoy them, and those who continue to try to push more onerous terms.

Before copyright, the newspaper showed up maybe once a week, people died of the common cold, and a bunch of guys were throwing tea in the harbor. You have to go back a long, long way to see the world without copyright, and I think a few things have changed around us since.

I have no problem to get the music and movies I like. Copyright doesn’t stop me. Oh wait, copyright might get in your way of illegally downloading, but hey, that’s your problem.

Anonymous Coward says:

I once got repeated robocalls from some place every day. Of course I have a job so I was never there for them. Instead I got a hang up or part of a “It’s very important that you call us” with no information about who they were or why it was important. It did have caller id info though with part of a company name. So I called that number and ripped into the guy for calling me every day. I told them I wasn’t the person they were calling for and told them to stop calling me and that I didn’t want anything they were selling. They guy then got defensive and said they weren’t selling anything.

So after hanging up I thought, “I hope I didn’t just rip into some charity or something.” So I looked up the company name.

It was a collection agency. But I do have to give them credit; they did stop calling me. Which I guess means that if you have collection agencies calling you the best thing to do is call back and rip into them saying you have no idea who the person they’re looking for.

Anonymous Coward says:

The problem is with the way these phone calls happen.

Guy: Is Maria there?

Me: You have the wrong number.

Guy: You s–ting me? Or: Are you sure? Come on now!

If you hang up they call back. My mobile provider doesn’t offer a way to block unwanted numbers, so I only pick up the phone when I recognize the number. Men with foreign accents are the most persistent in tracking down girlfriends they think are trying to avoid them. Maria’s gonna get her ass whipped once her dearly beloved finally catches up to her.

As mobile phones become cheaper and more affordable, the type of person who calls you with a wrong number is increasingly younger, ruder and less educated. I can see why people would lose it and pick up a gun. ‘Eat my shorts, bitch!’ is one response I’ve heard to my very nice ‘I’m sorry, you have the wrong number.’ If I wasn’t wrapped too tightly I might consider this a call to arms, and then arrange to meet the asshole and shoot him dead in a parking lot.

Cynyr (profile) says:

RE: Dark Helmet

I agree with you that there needs to be a middle ground found. The problem is that those with the rights don’t seem to want to talk with me. Not only that but they would rather spend money that would normally be invested in R&D on lobbyist for even more control and longer and longer rights. Also I’m sure a lot of the disrespect is from not feeling respected by the IP holders. Buy a dvd recently? Did it have an unskippable vid about not stealing a hand bag, cell phone, and car? I have several that way, “WTF I JUST BOUGHT THE GD MOVIE! WTF ARE YOU SHOWING ME THIS!!” is what goes through my head every time. Also I have about 10 devices capable of playing videos (with audio), the current major holders feel that I should have to buy the content once per device.

A situation and a question; I have a few dvds that have been damaged, I own the whole package, case, cover art, etc (no i don’t have a recept, these are ~7 years old). Now I have friends/family with that have the same content on dvds they own (one case was a different aspect ratio 4:3, mine was 16:9) How do you feel that I borrowed them, and ripped them, just like have have been doing for all of the dvds I own?

How about when I don’t borrow a dvd, but I rip it into a more convenient storage format(h264+aac in a mpeg4 on a harddisk)? I’m doing this mainly because my kids are very hard on dvds(see above example), and I want to protect my investment/purchase.

I would argue all of the above falls into fair use, or it should. I bought the dvd, I should be free to do what i like with it in private(comercial activity excluded), as long as long as it all takes place in private

Nastybutler77 (profile) says:

Revenge is a dish...

I once posted something on Craigslist and transposed two of the numbers in my phone number. The douchbag who’s number I mistakenly put down sent me a couple of emails where he threatened to kick my ass, call the cops, sue me, etc.

I changed my number to the correct one on the ad, but put his number in my phone. Now every time I’m at a bar, doctors office, or anywhere there is a free phone that can’t be traced to me I prank call him.

If he had just said, “Hi, you put my number on your Craigslist ad by mistake,” he could have avoided the heart attack he’ll soon have due to frequent prank calls raising his blood pressure through the roof.

Don’t get mad. Get even.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Revenge is a dish...

There’s your problem right there. You didn’t dismiss it, you took his disrespect and added a bunch more of your own on top. Instead of being the “bigger man”, you disrepected him back.

Do you carry around a black market to write the old “for a good time call” on the mens room wall as well?

30 years ago, nobody would have thought of doing this stuff. It’s a change in mentality, for sure.

ChrisB (profile) says:

Re: Re: Revenge is a dish...

> 30 years ago, nobody would have thought of doing this stuff.

What are you talking about? When I was young, I saw way more “for a good time” numbers scrawled on the bathroom door. When I was young, we’d actually get together and prank call people. It was our thing to do on Sundays (until my friend’s mom caught us).

It is an “urban” myth society is getting ruder.

Penny says:

Cell phone shooting

Bought ANOTHER PHONE, & not 3 days into having it, AGAIN another wrong number (NET10), with an insecure husband, I sit on the muscle now I know, ONCE again to expect more problems for something, ONCE again I’m not to blame for. But I’ll have to take the heat for it.

I texted the caller ASAP in hopes to scare him off, deleted the draft, send and everthing, the caller responded, again, deleted it. Then the fool actually called. Thanks for nothing.

Some of us take a lot of heat for these STUPID mistakes idiots take, when they don’t pay attention & such.

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