Phone Harassment After Sending Somebody a Text by Mistake

My question involves criminal law for the state of: pa or va

Hello, I have a question involving telephone harassment.

I was texting someone the other night and I accidentally texted someone in my directory a four word text. They responded but I was embarrassed so I did not respond. I figured I'd just drop it. The text I sent was not profane, lewd or rude. It was intended for someone else.

Later that evening I received a barrage of phone calls from midnight to 7am, upwards of 70+ calls from a Virginia phone number I did not recognize. This person also left 5 inaudible voicemails on my phone. 70+ calls from midnight to 7am!!!

I texted the person the next day and he or she was like "bring it on, you harassed my girlfriend" as a justification for call me all through the night. I'm not 100% who he or she is referring to because he or she would not identify themselves.

I would like to report this to someone but I'm not sure who. I have a record of all of the calls, as well as all of the voicemails. How should I proceed? I have a feeling this person is some kind of crazy or whatever - who calls someone 70+ times in one night, all through the night? Did they commit a crime and if so, what can I do about it? Thanks.

So you supposedly sent a text, mistakenly, to somebody you have the phone number for in your directory and you can't simply call or text her and apologize and explain the situation?


oh, and unless the guy keeps texting you I would just drop it. Maybe you should block his number.

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Quoting jk

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So you supposedly sent a text, mistakenly, to somebody you have the phone number for in your directory and you can't simply call or text her and apologize and explain the situation?

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Sure I could. But I didn't.

Hours later I started receiving calls all through the night from a number I didn't recognize and who left at least 5 but possibly more voicemails on my phone.

I see where you are coming from. One text accidentally sent, why not call the person and apologize. Hours later, 70+ phone calls from midnight to 7am from a number I don't recognize. Walk me through this from a legal perspective; does 70+ phone calls all through the night constitute harassment or not, and if so, who would I report it to? Thanks.

There is an old saying "2 wrongs don't make a right, but two Wrights can make an airplane."

Bottom line is: 70+ calls in the middle of the night, does that constitute harassment and if so, can I file a criminal complaint? Thanks.

if the calls have stopped no prosecutor will consider prosecuting this, even if it might be harassment technically.

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Quoting jk

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if the calls have stopped no prosecutor will consider prosecuting this, even if it might be harassment technically.

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Ok so I'm not expecting anyone to go to court or jail, but my question is can I file a police report about this incident, provide the police with my incoming call log showing 70+ calls all through the night, and will they at least try to contact the owner of the phone and perhaps fine them or something like that?

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Quoting gardening123

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Ok so I'm not expecting anyone to go to court or jail, but my question is can I file a police report about this incident, provide the police with my incoming call log showing 70+ calls all through the night, and will they at least try to contact the owner of the phone and perhaps fine them or something like that?

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No they won't.

just block the phone number, take the friend out of your contact list and move on with your life....

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Quoting eerelations

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No they won't.

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That's strange. Why are their laws on the books then? If calling someone 70+ times all through the night cannot be a something the police will even investigate...I'm going to have to just call the Virginia police myself and see. If it was one random text or someone calling once or even twice I could see the police not caring, but 70+ times to the same number in one evening? That sounds like the behavior of someone very unstable and I think they should check it out

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Quoting gardening123

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That's strange. Why are their laws on the books then? If calling someone 70+ times all through the night cannot be a something the police will even investigate...I'm going to have to just call the Virginia police myself and see. If it was one random text or someone calling once or even twice I could see the police not caring, but 70+ times to the same number in one evening? That sounds like the behavior of someone very unstable and I think they should check it out

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If the calls were ongoing. It might be different. Law enforcement and District Attorney Offices have limited resources. The are educated and trained in situations that can rise to the level the laws are for.

Can you block the number,? If you can, why haven't you done it ?

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Quoting Mercy&Grace

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If the calls were ongoing. It might be different. Law enforcement and District Attorney Offices have limited resources. The are educated and trained in situations that can rise to the level the laws are for.

Can you block the number,? If you can, why haven't you done it ?

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Sure I can block the number, and I might do that. But why should I have to block a number?

I checked the phone records there were 87 calls in total from Saturday to Sunday. No more have come in.

Looks like I can't pursue anything but I'm still going to try. 87 calls all through the night seems a bit ridiculous to me. I feel like a visit from a police officer would probably make this person think twice about doing this again.

Since the calls have stopped, there's nothing the police can do. What do you think a visit from a police officer will do? Make the calls stop even more than they already have? Wut?

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Quoting gardening123

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Sure I can block the number, and I might do that. But why should I have to block a number?

I checked the phone records there were 87 calls in total from Saturday to Sunday. No more have come in.

Looks like I can't pursue anything but I'm still going to try. 87 calls all through the night seems a bit ridiculous to me. I feel like a visit from a police officer would probably make this person think twice about doing this again.

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Why wouldn't you want to block the number? That stops any harassment. Go ahead and try to pursue charges you won't get anywhere but wasting your time.

Why do you think the police would do ANYTHING in this case? They have far more important things to do than waste their time and resources on your petty crap. Just block the number. No cops are going to investigate this or figure out who this person is based on only a phone number. How do you know the person on the other end is the owner of the phone number even? Just let it go. There's no harassment now since there are no more calls.

If you do not know who the person on the other end of the phone might be, then the police are not likely to do it for you. Unlike TV, there is not a magical, mystical database of cell phone numbers and their owners. It would take legwork and subpoenas or search warrants to obtain the information (and that's assuming the number you see on your phone was not spoofed), and that's a lot of time and effort for a low level offense. The most the police might do is take a report for the harassment and offer you suggestions to avoid the problem ... such as suggesting you block the number.

If the calls are ended, then consider yourself lucky. You might also want to remove the contact on your phone that began the whole affair so that you do not "accidentally" text them something in the future.

I suspect there is an underlying reason op wants to involve the police and harass the guy that made the calls.

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Quoting jk

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I suspect there is an underlying reason op wants to involve the police and harass the guy that made the calls.

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Hmmm. If someone carelessly drove their car through my fence, would I be using the cops to "harass" the driver who damaged my property?

I hear where you all are coming from, but 87 phone calls in a 6-7 hour time frame seems egregious. So if I had called the police after the 30th call, and the phone was actually still ringing as I made a formal police report, and continued after I filed such a report, then I'd get some assistance. Ok, seems odd but OK.

If it's some teenagers, then yes, I think a visit from a police officer to announce that 87 calls came from this number and it needs to stop would have a great effect.

In the spirit of full disclosure, when I was a teenager I made some random prank calls to a neighbor over a period of a few months. I never said anything threatening, but I said odd, incongruous things. One night a police officer called my house and said that these people were going to press charges against me. My mom had to take me to the police station and the cops read me my rights. They then wanted me to write a letter apologizing to the neighbor, which I did. This was probably in 1993. They said making repeated calls to anyone was against the law, even if you weren't cursing, swearing or threatening. Maybe the whole thing was a scam to scare me, well it worked. I certainly didn't do that sort of thing anymore.

Here we are 25+ years later and I get 87 calls in a night and everyone is telling me the police won't waste their time with this. The police sure were happy to "waste" their time with me in the 90's, but it had a good effect. I'm just thinking that if police got involved in this the same effect might be achieved.

You are free to make a police report, indicating that you were called a large number of times over a short period, several days ago, with no subsequent contact. You will subsequently learn what the police are willing to do in response to your report.

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Quoting gardening123

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If it's some teenagers, then yes, I think a visit from a police officer to announce that 87 calls came from this number and it needs to stop would have a great effect.

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It might have a great effect if the calls were still happening. But they're not. And the police know this, which is why they won't be bothered to do anything.

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Quoting gardening123

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Hmmm. If someone carelessly drove their car through my fence, would I be using the cops to "harass" the driver who damaged my property?

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Damage to property is different than being annoyed or vexed.

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If it's some teenagers, then yes, I think a visit from a police officer to announce that 87 calls came from this number and it needs to stop would have a great effect.

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However, since you do not know who is making the call, the police wouldn't be visiting anyone. As I said, they are not at all likely to waste time with subpoenas and search warrants on multiple phone providers in an effort to obtain the holder of the phone number just so they can tell someone to stop doing something they have already stopped doing.

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Quoting gardening123

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Hmmm. If someone carelessly drove their car through my fence, would I be using the cops to "harass" the driver who damaged my property?

I hear where you all are coming from, but 87 phone calls in a 6-7 hour time frame seems egregious. So if I had called the police after the 30th call, and the phone was actually still ringing as I made a formal police report, and continued after I filed such a report, then I'd get some assistance. Ok, seems odd but OK.

If it's some teenagers, then yes, I think a visit from a police officer to announce that 87 calls came from this number and it needs to stop would have a great effect.

In the spirit of full disclosure, when I was a teenager I made some random prank calls to a neighbor over a period of a few months. I never said anything threatening, but I said odd, incongruous things. One night a police officer called my house and said that these people were going to press charges against me. My mom had to take me to the police station and the cops read me my rights. They then wanted me to write a letter apologizing to the neighbor, which I did. This was probably in 1993. They said making repeated calls to anyone was against the law, even if you weren't cursing, swearing or threatening. Maybe the whole thing was a scam to scare me, well it worked. I certainly didn't do that sort of thing anymore.

Here we are 25+ years later and I get 87 calls in a night and everyone is telling me the police won't waste their time with this. The police sure were happy to "waste" their time with me in the 90's, but it had a good effect. I'm just thinking that if police got involved in this the same effect might be achieved.

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Someone damaging your property and someone calling your phone are two VERY different things. You can block a harassing caller. You can't predict or stop someone from ramming a car into your home or yard. Apples vs oranges.

No you probably wouldn't have gotten any assistance if you called after the 30th call and it was still ringing. They'd probably tell you "Why don't you just block the number?" Especially when you don't know who it is. How do you expect them to find out who it is if this person is in another state?

It probably was something to scare you - and obviously you did it to neighbors who knew your phone number if they had caller ID.

1990s compared to now - you can block phone numbers now.

No one said you can't file a report - we just said it won't get too far.