She could easily look up your name on a reverse phone directory (internet) if she really wanted to. Doesn't your caller ID give out your name already though?

Pam

The phone rang and I answered, thinking it was my family or another patient's family. No, it was someone who had been rung accidentally by one of us in the waiting room. She was giving me the third degree even AFTER I told her this was a hospital waiting room and that some distraught family member must have misdialed.

So --- who knows why they grill people like that. Maybe they have collectors calling? Maybe they have prank callers a lot? Maybe suspicious about husbands? Maybe they just have NO LIFE. But don't try to second-guess why they were so insistent, and don't read anything into it.

It is just the way some people are.

Are you sure you know who the caller was?

Even if you are, consider what you know of them from before. You might want to ask your son if he's ever felt anything but safe there. Maybe their house isn't wacky, but that unknown number was like the last straw for her on that day for some reason.

people can experience extreme anxiety and panic, or even disorientation sometimes when faced with unpredictable events they cannot control (including 'strange' phone numbers, although why they would then call the strange number seems a touch odd... maybe it's the one thing they can control about the situation)

P.S. If you know her socially, and know for sure that she was the caller you can talk to her. Under more friendly circumstances where you both feel more comfortable and relaxed you can ask her if she remembers 'last tuesday' (or whatever day). See what she says. You can mention that you were the person on the other end of the phone. You can also ask if she's ok because she didn't sound very ok on the phone that day, in fact she sounded frightening. In this sort of way, with extreme tact and diplomacy and with sincere care you can try to at least find out what she was thinking and she might share why she thought it.

I really find it annoying that people are that paranoid and they think you are "After them"... as if you called and hung up for a reason, if you did even call and hang up, which isn't the case of what happens here!

The most annoying thing is when they argue with you. "Is this phone number not 555-5555? well if it is missy, then YOU called ME".

Some people just adore being rude. It's their nature. It's these people who use *69 to their worst advantage!

- darkeyedgirl

For one thing, If you hit redial in the middle of calling one of your friends, you might have gotten a third number. Example: your friend's number is 878-8878; your son's friend number (on the redial) is 565-5565. You dial 878-8 [hit redial] 565.

If you're worried about it, you could call the son's friend's mom and say you had an odd experience with a wrong number on your end and you want to know if she was the one who got the incorrect phone call. If it's her, you'll find out soon enough. If it is her, you can say you wanted to reassure her that it was a simple accident (and make your judgment about whether your son should go to her house based on how she reacts now). If it wasn't her, you can say you wanted to investigate because you didn't want her to think you were inconsiderate.

It's also possible that your aborted phone call coincided with things in that woman's life (whoever she is) you don't know about--a rash of prank phone calls, a disagreement with someone at work, whatever.

But if you made the redial mistake 4 or 5 hours earlier, you can't have "just" been calling her (whoever she is) as she claimed, and she probably wouldn't have still had the phone number around (unless it was on an answering machine). I'd bet it was a case of her misreading it, or some other crossed-wire screw-up (don't tell me they don't happen).

Have you met this other mom? Even if you don't want to pursue it by phone, you might want to get to know her a little better. Then you'll have a better idea of if it is her.

I'm w/ you, I wouldn't have given my name. And certainly would have hung up on her as you described, if she didn't give any reason for wanting to know--if she'd explained that she'd received a rash of prank phone calls or something, but sheesh! wrong numbers happen all the time!

So I let it ring, and ring, and ring, then start to panic. We can't call from a pay phone either. I once had to call from the hospital because her son had been in an accident. She wouldn't pick up the phone.

Very frustrating.

She would not have recognized my name on her called ID because my last name is different from my son's.

As for her saying that I "just" called her, I assume she read the display wrong or something. My caller ID displays the name, phone number, date and time of the call. I assume that hers does too and she made a mistake about the time of the call. Also, my display stores up to 100 numbers. So I can easily scroll "back in time" and see who called me last week if I wanted to (and had nothing better to do)!

I did have an opportunity to meet this mom shortly after the phone episode. We were introduced by first names only. She was very nice and went on and on about how much she just loved my son. I didn't bother to tell her that we had already met via telephone. I thought it best not to antagonize her ;) because I know how volatile she can be!

That is what has given me pause. Let me tell you -- she wasn't very nice when she thought she was talking to a stranger. I know that wrong numbers happen all the time but she seemed to really overreact to it. There is something that I left out of my original post. I don't know if this matters, but she is not from this country and does have a problem expressing herself in English. At this point, I don’t think I will tell her that I was the person on the phone that day because it would probably only embarrass her. Maybe she has figured it out by now anyway. But because of her overblown reaction, I think I would prefer that the boys spend time over here and not there. If you’ve ever been around someone who blows up at the drop of a hat, then you will understand.

Thanks for all the feedback. I mostly wanted to vent a little because this situation served as a reminder to me. You can never truly know a person. When I met her in person, she was putting her best foot forward. But I think that day on the phone showed her TRUE colors.

~Leslie~

I think there's a bit of paranoia on both ends. You're afraid that because she was rude to you on the telephone that she'll do something weird to your kid, who she obviously really likes? Yes, it WAS weird that she called you back and grilled you. There are many, many possibilities for her strange reaction. I wouldn't automatically assume she's a nut just because she over-reacted. we all do it from time to time.

I think it's less that the OP is worried how she'll treat the OP's son and more that the OP would prefer her son not overhear this woman lose it.

Since becoming a mom, I have changed that and other habits. Because, even if it is a stranger, or even if they are out of earshot, as they say, it's what is in your heart that counts. And DD has begun to repeat a few things I said under my breath in traffic ;-) So I have decided to change my attitude about treating strangers/etc different from how I treat people in person face to face.

Trish