Dear stvatx-ga;
Thank you for allowing me an opportunity to answer your interesting
question.
Regardless of what advice you receive from others regarding these
incidents, I strongly urge you to file an official police report, at
the very least, indicating that the phone calls took place so that the
dates and times that they occurred on will be part of an official
record other than your own. The reason is simple; some callers bent on
harassing people graduate to more evil things that anonymous verbal
banter. As a 20-year law enforcement veteran myself, I've known all
kinds of weirdo's and what concerns me most is the very fact that this
situation has been repeated with enough accuracy to catch the waiting
students’ attention each time. This signals both premeditation and
advance knowledge.
Consider this: The calls seem as if they are planned in advance.
Because these calls happened more than once at a time that was
convenient for the caller to “speak” to the children, it is only
logical to assume that one or more of the following scenarios are his
motivation:
The caller’s intent is to instill fear in the children or to shock
them with his suggestive talk. He apparently knows when vulnerable
students are present, which brings up my next point.
The caller obviously has advance knowledge. He knows the in’s and
out’s of your business or is nearby and knows when the children are
present. He may be able to actually see them from his vantage point.
If the caller is a predator, this can be very alarming.
The caller may be trying to gratify himself, and anyone who gets
gratification by shocking children or causing them fear is a dangerous
person indeed.
The caller could be trying to damage your livelihood or seek revenge
against you or a student, in which case you may have someone like a
neighboring business, disgruntled employee, and enemy of a student
(all of whom would be familiar with your specific schedule) trying to
ruin your business or ruin one or more of your student’s fun.
Or finally, perhaps the caller is simply a prankster, who, for
whatever sick reason, has chosen your business at random to harass on
a continuing basis
I wouldn’t totally discount the last scenario, but it does seem
unlikely. This kind of activity is not uncommon behavior for a person
in the early stages of molestation, or someone acting on his impulses
of becoming an early stage sexual predator (or perhaps one who may
have dormant and is now re-entering “the game”). At one time, the
world made fun of “dirty old men” and the like, but in today’s world,
obscene phone calls are nothing to scoff at. They can be early warning
signs of potential danger on the horizon. In some situations, the
initial excitement the caller gets from of making the call wanes and
he struggles to find ways to recapture the thrill. He may try to
initiate contact in other ways like leaving notes, following people
home, or the most dangerous of all, person to person contact.
Once you file a police report, immediately call your telephone
company. Explain your situation and ask them to place a “TRAP” on your
phone – this is not a TAP or a TRACE now, it’s called a “TRAP”. They
will explain how it works but basically it records the phone numbers
of all incoming calls (not the voice – just the number) at the phone
company. You, in turn, record the calls and make note of the exact
time when a suspicious call comes in. If you get a call at 2:15 pm for
example, write that down and contact the phone company. They will
record the telephone number of the caller for that time period only
and forward that information to the police. Many phone companies
require you to sign a document indicating that you agree to assume all
liability and agree to prosecute the offender in court (this might
include court appearances, meetings with a prosecutor or DA, facing
the accused, and possibly even testifying on the stand in court).
In closing, I am not trying to alarm you but my answer is yes, make a
report with the police. Be keenly aware. Keep all your tapes. Buy new
ones of necessary but never erase or record over old ones. Be prepared
to turn tapes over to the police every time you make a new one so they
can be dated and cataloged. This won’t prevent them from being thrown
out of court as bad evidence should it some to that, but it may help
preserve them so that a defense attorney cannot claim that the tapes
were manipulated or mishandled by you while in your care. I suggest
you call the police, and do it soon. You not only have an obligation
to your clients but you are also civilly liable to some degree for
their safety. Having known that a potential danger existed and failing
to report it could absolutely ruin you in a lawsuit for negligence.
All that aside, in the awful event that this person did come to your
business and harm you or your students to such a degree that no one
would be willing or able to tell the story, your information will be
on file.
Below you will find that I have carefully defined my search strategy
for you in the event that you need to search for more information. By
following the same type of searches that I did you may be able to
enhance the research I have provided even further. I hope you find
that that my research exceeds your expectations. If you have any
questions about my research please post a clarification request prior
to rating the answer. Otherwise, I welcome your rating and your final
comments and I look forward to working with you again in the near
future. Thank you for using Google Answers.
Best regards;
Tutuzdad-ga
INFORMATION SOURCES
“Stopping Harassing Phone Calls”
http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs3-hrs2.htm
CONSUMER ACTION – PRIVACY RIGHTS CLEARINGHOUSE
“How to Put an End to Unwanted or Harassing Phone Calls”
http://www.consumer-action.org/English/library/privacy_rights/1996_FS03_EndHarrassingCalls.php
SEARCH STRATEGY
SEARCH ENGINE USED:
Google ://www.google.com
SEARCH TERMS USED:
Phone company trap
Stop harassing phone calls |
