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Something very strange happened to my sister. She called one of her friends, and someone else picked up. (This was a stored number that she'd used before, so it wasn't like she didn't know whether it was the right number for her friend.) So the guy who picked up was apparently completely insane. He started yelling at my sister and accused her friend of stealing his phone. After threatening her life and other assorted pleasantries, he told her to hang up the phone and go to bed, which she did.

So she called her friend's wife and asked if he'd just played a prank on her. She put her husband on the phone, and he had no idea what she was talking about. When my sister asked if he had gotten a call from her recently, he said he hadn't heard his phone ring, but he did have a voice mail from her. The voice mail was my sister's side of the conversation with the insane guy. So it was her talking to him, but what he said wasn't recorded.

How the hell does something like this happen? (And yes, I've already asked my sister if she was on drugs. She wasn't.) Anyone have any idea as to what wires got crossed where?

I work in the telecommunications industry, so...

that is still fucking weird. That's three connections - your sister, insane guy, and the voicemail. "Crossed wires" should have gone out with the landline - it's all digital now.

Could it have been caused by a cloned cell? That immediately leaps to my mind. The specific network may also have issues that could cause this kind of problem, especially if the network is an older one.

I'm in telecommunications (presently working in Nokia) and this one has got me stumped. Was your sister making a 2G or 3G call?

The Jester wrote:I'm in telecommunications (presently working in Nokia) and this one has got me stumped. Was your sister making a 2G or 3G call?

She's on Cingular ... so 2G?

And yes, I know that no wires actually got crossed. It's an expression.

According to wikipedia Cingular use both 2G and 3G networks. What model phone does she use?

And were your sister and her friend in the same city?

The Jester wrote:According to wikipedia Cingular use both 2G and 3G networks. What model phone does she use?

Don't know. I think it's a Motorola.

And were your sister and her friend in the same city?

Yes, I believe so. Who knows where the lunatic was though.

There might've been some freak routing glitch that caused all of this - especially if the two numbers happened to share the same exchange number (the middle three digits)

Looking into it, though without being able to see a record of the signalling messages, these sorts of issues are virtually impossible troubleshoot.

What was happening was that the call was being routed to two different numbers, so the problem is definitely on the network side. Has your sister contacted Cingular to report the issue?

EDIT: Did your sister hear that the phone was ringing before someone picked up?

My brother also had a cell phone glitch. He was able to hear his friend's conversation with his brother after his friend put him on hold.

Maybe she was dreaming and sleep talking? It's kind of weird that after all that he tells her to hang up the phone and go to bed and she complys.

Enigma wrote:My brother also had a cell phone glitch. He was able to hear his friend's conversation with his brother after his friend put him on hold.

Probably not a glitch. Most cell phones I looked at (regular cells, not smartphones) while I was deciding on what to get support 3-way calls. Your brother's friend probably inadvertently put him on 3-way instead of hold.