Man called directory assistance 10,000 times
A 37-year-old Japanese man has been arrested after placing 10,000 calls to directory assistance. He did not need to get phone numbers, rather, he called because he enjoyed having the operators chide him.
He reportedly told police that he was lonely and grew to enjoy annoying the operators.Link (Via Digg)"I would go into ecstasy when a lady scolded me," he was quoted as saying by Jiji Press.
Telephone operators - who in Japan are almost always women - nicknamed him the "don't-hang-up-man".
His calls usually came late and sometimes exceeded 200 times a night, Jiji Press said.
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Hot? awww common; if this where not Japan, it wouldn't even merit a FARK link.
I he had to pay for it then I doubt he'd pester them so much... Directory enquiries in UK is obscenely expensive...
It appears that trolls have mutated and can now jump the real world/online barrier.
God save us...
Sort of points to a need doesn't it? I mean, there are a lot of lonely elderly folk in modern society. You'd think someone would take the hint and just... talk to them. Probably would save money in countless ways. But God forbid that anyone ever do anything nice for people that doesn't have the end goal of sucking every last dollar from them.
I feel the operators' pain. There's a intellectually disabled woman who calls my work at least ten times a day and either talks about her dead cat or hangs up right away. This has been going on for three years. Police are investigating, but it still continues. For cryin' out loud, Naomi, knock it off!!
How can I contact this man?
@Noen: I feel for you. I had a similar experience when my new job gave me the exact number for a cut-rate life insurance company's toll-free number, minus the area code. From my first day I was swamped with calls from irate policy holders who, even after being told I didn't work for their insurer and that they needed to dial 1800 before the number, were livid i wouldn't help them with their bills.
My favorite was the woman who asked if the toll free number I gave her to call instead of mine was going to cost her. I assured her it was free. Then she called back to make certain. She wanted me to call the toll free number and see if it cost me anything.
@ #2 JymDonovan: There's something idiosynchratically Japanese about this. Naughty but submissive. Like a guy who pinches girls' asses not for the asses but for the slaps he gets as a result. If there's a gameshow where they shove live jellyfish down the front of one's pants he'd probably be first in line.
@ #8 Grey: How would she know you weren't lying? Was she going to wait until you got your phone bill and have you send her a copy?
noen: There's already services you can call to chat to young women, they're normally advertised in the back of magazines.
I've worked in a couple of news organisations and they all have pet callers like this. Some want to be chided like this man - I imagine it turns them on - and others just need someone to talk to in the wee hours of the morning.
One guy used to call with movie trivia questions: "Excuse me, miss, but I can't seem to remember who played Jim Morrison in The Doors." Nice fellow. Night shifts were ridiculously quiet and that particular phone line wasn't needed for anything, so I usually indulged him.
Is directory assistance free in Japan? Here in the US that would've cost me $17,900, and most of my calls would've been handled by an IVR computer. I miss InFone, which was a real live person for $.90.
"Operator, oh let's forget about this call
There's no one one there I really wanted to talk to
Thank you for your time; oh you've been so much more than kind
You can keep the dime"
@NOEN I think people generally want to help people who are socially needy, but get creeped out when they latch on. Look at this guy. He called the same number 10,000 times after being told not to again and again. Somehow, I can see how he might have driven away his friends in real life, only exasperating his loneliness. It's kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy -- a lot of these people are lonely precisely because they are lonely, and that social desperation is what drives away genuinely caring people. I used to go to extra efforts to reach out to clearly lonely people, but after several times when they invaded my personal life, I had to stop. Even with explanations about what was appropriate and what was not, some of them did not understand or did not care, and continued acting inappropriately. As a result, I still try to be helpful, but am much more cautious with how much personal effort I make reaching out to emotionally needy people.
#10 Felix Mitchell
"noen: There's already services you can call to chat to young women, they're normally advertised in the back of magazines."
Honey, I'm not a lesbian but thanks anyway.
#14 Christovir
I'm just saying that there seems to be a need and that if we just sent in maybe some social workers (or something) we could do some good AND same money on hospital visits too. And apparently you have psychic powers because you "can see how he might have driven away his friends in real life". I rather doubt that. I think he simply outlived all his friends.
According to the post, the guy's 37.
@15 NOEN I definitely agree some CBT would do wonders for people like this, and many other social ills. However, I don't think it is a stretch or trying to be "psychic" to say he might have had other social problems that made him lonely. Also, it does say he was 37, not 87.
@ NOEN:
Your worry about lonely elderly folks is surely justified, but I don't see what it has to do with this case.
I've dealt with serial callers. Some of them are genuinely lonely, and a stranger on the phone might be their only chance at social interaction that day. Then there are the crazies: the ones with an urge to tell someone, anyone, about the conspiracies and aliens and murderous in-laws that populate their delusions. And then there are those whose sexual fantasies require the non-consensual participation of strangers. I'd say this guy (at 37, he's hardly "outlived his friends", I hope) falls into the third category.
You're missing the point. He wasn't looking for a chat; he wanted them to be angry and chastise him. He's a pervert, not lonely.
He should have just ordered a few annoyed-telephone-rep fetish DVDs.
If those don't exist yet, I'm sure some "A/V industry" studio in the outskirts of Tokyo started on a few screenplays after this story broke...
Well if he's a perv then he should be shot right? How do think therapists treat people with sexual paraphilias? They are compassionate (while maintaining therapeutic boundaries of course).
What the f*ck is the matter with people?
Please chill out, Noen. When I read about a lonely, sexually obsessive guy that has harassed telephone operators with 10,000 phonecalls, sure I feel compassion - but most of it is reserved for the women he targetted.
No one said that the guy doesn't deserve treatment or should be shot. On the other hand, you said some wacko shit about a 37-year-old outliving his friends, so yeah, people thought it was silly.
Someone who managed to get arrested for calling directory assistance too many times deserves international celebrity. No question.
I definitely agree some CBT would do wonders for people like this, and many other social ills.
I had to google 'CBT' to figure out that you weren't suggesting Cock & Ball Torture. We need to work on this abbreviation thing a little more.
I think you need to live in Japan for awhile to understand this case.