Elderly Amish Man Caught on Film With Prostitute, Blackmailed
When a 75-year-old Amish widower slept with a prostitute, he -- we feel certain -- felt pretty bad about it the next morning. As if that guilt weren't enough for the old man, the prostitute and her boyfriend demanded $67,000 from him, claiming that they had filmed the scene with wall-mounted cameras and would upload the recording to the Internet. The pair was later arrested and, we can only imagine, the Amish man abhorred technology more than ever.
Bank Robber Gets Away With the Help of Craiglist
In October, a bank robber -- wearing a safety vest, blue shirt, face mask and goggles -- eluded police with the help of Craiglist. Just outside the bank, while the robbery was in progress, stood a group of men who were responding to a Craiglist day labor opportunity. As the advertisement required, they were all wearing safety vests, blue shirts, face masks and goggles.
Nude New Zealander Arrested After Responding to Fake Sexy Text Message
Late in 2007, a Wellington, New Zealand man received a racy text message from two anonymous "ladies," giving him only an address and a request that he show up naked. Well, he indeed showed up naked... at the home of one appalled, unsuspecting New Zealander. Both the nude Romeo and the sadistic texter were arrested, though neither were prosecuted.
Fake Craiglist Ad Costs Man Most of What He Owns
Last Spring, a post appeared on an Oregon Craigslist board stating that the owner of a specific house was leaving all of his worldly possessions (still in said house) to whoever wanted them. When homeowner Robert Salisbury rushed home -- on a tip from a woman suspicious about the offer of a free horse -- he found his house being ransacked by 30 strangers. We suggest he take that horse and collect some vengeance Clint Eastwood-style.
17-Year-Old Jailed for Stealing Virtual 'Furniture'
When a 17-year-old Dutch boy hacked into several accounts on the Second Life-style site 'Habbo' in 2007, the the law got involved. The boy was discovered to have stolen $5,800 worth of virtual furniture and knick-knacks. Apparently, crime -- whether actual or virtual -- does not pay.
Phishers Going After Your Phones in New 'Vishing' Trend
Over the past year, sneaky spammers have begun to forsake the worn-out territory of e-mail in favor of cell phones' fertile frontier. The result? "Vishing." Get it? Voice mail phishing. It might be more ominous if it didn't sound like a James Bond villain saying, "Wishing."
Burglars Break Into Restaurant, Steal HDTV, Leave Money / Food Behind
Around Halloween of last year, a truckload of thieves drove into -- that's right, into -- a Pennsylvania Mexican restaurant, where they -- apparently uninterested in the cash register -- stole a mid-grade 47-inch HDTV and fled the scene. We've all heard about how this generation is lacking in ambition, but this generation's thieves, too?
Every so often it's nice to cover a story with a happy ending. Here's a new one: When Verizon upgraded the phone system in his hometown of Irvington, NY, 80-year-old widower Charles Whiting lost the outgoing message -- recorded by his late wife Catherine -- on his voicemail system. Whiting would call his voicemail everyday just to hear her voice, and feel like she was still with him.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 7)
debi said 7:10PM on 3-19-2008
that is such a great story...i'm glad he's able to listen to his wife's voice everyday. it's so sweet..
Reply
Kathy Klisch said 8:02AM on 3-20-2008
Can I get My Mom's recording from her old telephone number? It has been 12 years. It was the only voice recording we had. Kathy
Reply
cheri said 2:07PM on 3-20-2008
Why does Verizon keep our personal messages anyway?
Reply
Gwen said 2:07PM on 3-20-2008
way to go Verizon! such a nice thing to do for someone!
Reply
Joe Blow said 2:12PM on 3-20-2008
Wow, finally a nice story...thats refreshing. Instead of death and mayhem, the media should try articles like this more often.
Reply
Lillian said 2:14PM on 3-20-2008
That is great for this particular situation, it is so sweet for him to have the voice of his loved one back!!!!
The only thing that bothers me is that these companies have our phone messages???? I also wonder why they would keep outgoing messages???
For what purpose???
It's a little too creepy.
Reply
larry said 2:18PM on 3-20-2008
Thumbs up for Verizon! Such a thoughtful thing to do. There are still people in the world that are compasionate. Thanks for your thoughtfulness.
Reply
Lon Horiuchi V said 2:18PM on 3-20-2008
Part of "CONDITIONING" is when we're sold bs like this as a way of "conditioning" us to think that retaining information on us in dossiers is a good thing.
We've just been advised that another form of electronic communication is being archived against us, but it was done in a pretty wrapper like this love story.
This is NOT a good thing.
Communications between people are private, and are not the property of anyone else simply because they're not sent through the Post Office.
Reply
BARB said 2:19PM on 3-20-2008
THAT IS GREAT THAT VERIZON CAN FIND OLD VOICEMAILS, BUT WHAT ABOUT
PROVIDING CUSTOMER SERVICE TO THEIR EXISTING FIOS CUSTOMERS?????
I WAS ON HOLD FOR 6 HOURS THE OTHER DAY, WAS THAT SO THEY COULD RETRIEVE AN OLD VOICE
RECORDING??? PROBABLY!!
Reply
JanLar said 2:20PM on 3-20-2008
This man is a neighbor of mine, and after reading about this in the local paper I was in tears. Although I questioned why he had not taken videorecordings of all their trips together, that too would have helped ease his heartache. I too have messages left on my answering machine from people who are very dear to me and because I almost lost my Mom in a so called simple operation, the first thing I did when I got home from the hospital was listen to her sweet messages she had left me and then ran to Staples for a mini tape recorder. I now save all my messages from the people I love that way. I am so happy he was able to get his message back, but please sir, get a tape recorder and tape it over and over on the tape for future problems may arise such as power outages have erased my messages in the past.
Reply
RuttRoh24 said 2:23PM on 3-20-2008
I have been with every phone company out there and Verizon is the best. Barb, six hours on hold???? Sounds like you got bigger problems.
Reply
bruce laudeman said 2:26PM on 3-20-2008
great thing to do verizon
Reply
Chris said 2:26PM on 3-20-2008
Makes me ashamed for all the smack ive talked about verizon. Someone deserves a raise...
Reply
laineyb said 2:28PM on 3-20-2008
Oh for the love of god, you people are freaking paranoid! If Verizon did not keep a copy of your outgoing message, how the heck do you expect it to be played for anyone? It is not like your phone stores the message, of course it is sitting on a server somewhere.
Reply
undrgrndgirl said 2:28PM on 3-20-2008
good on ya verizon! how wonderful for this man...after losing my soul mate last june i know how important the seemingly trivial things - like having a voice recording - can be...
Reply
Mark said 2:28PM on 3-20-2008
This is a voice message recorded for the purpose of collecting messages. "Hi, this is so and so leave a message at the beep" They weren't recording peivate messaages.
Reply
james carter said 2:30PM on 3-20-2008
its good that verizon cares about people thats better than att. who only cares about $$$$$$$ if they had to do this for him they would have charged him.
Reply
BJTurner said 2:32PM on 3-20-2008
Just a response to those who don't know that there voice mail and out going msg are recorded in all telephone company data bases not on their home answer machines so the only msgs that are stored are the ones you put there how else could you use your cell phone? Nice story
Reply
jack said 2:33PM on 3-20-2008
Verizon is such a crappy company..I think it is great they would finally do something to help a customer!
Reply
Barry Summerlin said 2:34PM on 3-20-2008
Privacy freaks -- it's the outgoing message ("Hi, not here right now, leave your name and number, etc."), not a message she left for him. Your outgoing messages would be retained in your provider's system -- it's why someone calling your phone would get your voicemail invitation even if your phone was turned off. It's unlikely Verizon would retain your old outgoing messages, just the current one. If this widower never changed his wife's outgoing voicemail message, it makes sense that it'd be someplace in the system.
Reply