When I was 19, I had friends from high school who were still younger, and one of them was my friend Julie who had helicopter parents (she would have been 17-18). I was doing security at an event where the radio headsets we had were super-shitty, and the guy running security was a dumpster fire on his own. Julie's parents forbid her from going to the event, and grounded her to her room. Then her dad called the hotel where the event was being held, was told Julie had "run away" to this event, and that I was somehow responsible. Given she was a minor, the event runners were understandably concerned, although they were frustrated that Julie's dad was unable to describe her in a way that was useful: "Asian, wearing black, or a tee-shirt, or something. Ask Punkie where she is." So they contacted the head of security to find me on my rounds to see if I knew what this crazy man was talking about. The head of security said "okay" and did nothing.
At some point, the head of security was fired for a variety of reasons, and this increased the level of miscommunication. Meanwhile, Julie's dad was calling every few hours, demanding to know where his daughter was. And soon there was a concerted effort to find me, which was complicated because of the communication issues. By the time someone found me and the connection was made, my response of, "I have no idea, Julie said her dad forbid her coming here," was not what they wanted to hear, and met with skepticism "You're not hiding her, are you? Like she ran away with you in some tryst? She's 17 and you're 19, that could have legal ramifications!" No. We're platonic friends, I don't know where she is. if I tried to bonk the poor woman, she'd clobber me.
Meanwhile, Julie's dad finds Julie in her bedroom, right where he left her. Julie later told me that she was ignoring her dad calling for her, and didn't "come downstairs" like he demanded because she assumed it was a trap to get her punished for leaving her bedroom while she was grounded. So naturally, her dad assumed she wasn't in the house. Because he called for her and she didn't answer.
Poor Julie. Her parents were crazy-nuts.
Are you still in touch with Julie? I hope she moved out and went on to become a well-rounded, functioning adult with a good job and healthy social life.
When that’s the type of parents you grow up with, having a well-rounded and functioning adult life with a healthy social aspect becomes a bit of a long shot. Not impossible, but jeez, I can’t imagine how fucked up that girl’s trust and social skills must have been when she was leaving the house. That’s the kind of parenting that leads kids to go absolutely off the wall and down a pretty dark path.
I was for about 15 years post high school, but her life was rough and I was always the one initiating contact, so we drifted apart. I hope she okay. Smart woman, gifted arist, terrible parents.
Then her dad called the hotel where the event was being held, was told Julie had “run away” to this event, and that I was somehow responsible.
Why would the hotel tell her dad that Julie had run away?
Occam's razor. Which is more likely: Punkie made a mistake in wording when describing the situation, or the security team, who is very likely completely unaware of Punkie and Julie's relationship plus as noted later has no idea who Julie is made up out of thin air that Punkie convinced a stranger on the phone that one of their junior staff convinced said strangers daughter to run away?
Of course it is more likely. That’s not in question though.
Just that the wording suggests the opposite
I remember this one. Someone else lost him, but he knew where he was and wanted to be there.
Yeah that's the only way it makes sense.
I mean if you have a functioning phone and you felt you were in danger, would you sit around waiting for someone to call you?
Our guy was obviously having a merry old time out hiking, and ignoring unknown numbers. Then only found out later someone else was freaked out about him being lost.
But a story like that isn't going to get shared as a facebook meme...
This is like when I was 11 and my family went hiking up a mountain in Yellowstone. My young cousin and I thought my brother was ahead of us on the trail so we hurried up trying to catch up to him. We were passing many hikers on a busy trail and being safe.
An hour later my brother comes running up behind us saying everyone is looking for us! Apparently the park rangers had been mobilized to search for us, the missing children, and when we got down the mountain an hour or more later our families were down there in tears fearing we had fallen off the mountain or something.
Point being, it's totally possible for everyone to think you're lost and in danger when you are fine and know exactly where you are.
That last part sounds like how Disney World deals with lost kids- You're not lost, you're right here. It's your parents that are lost.
Yes it was annoying how our families kept bringing up how we "got lost on the mountain" during the trip and we kept having to remind them that we weren't lost, just hiking!
We really need to go ahead and rip the band-aid off with the telephone network. "Even the small amount of meaning these digits used to have has been lost to time with cell phones and VoIP technology so any user can contact any other user appearing to be any rando with no authentication making the system rife for scams and fuckery and we have no plan to fix it. Participation is as mandatory as we can get without a constitutional amendment."
It's not quite as mandatory as it can get. The FCC has made rumbles about actually kicking carriers off the networks if they don't adhere to the shaken/stirred protocols, but never seems to get around to actually doing it.
Yeah I don't think it's actually illegal yet for a citizen to not have a phone number but try to get a job, go to school, pay your bills or be anything other than a wood chopping hermit without one. I'm a hermit but I heat my home with natural gas so I'm all but required to have a phone.
"Help! I'm trapped in the mountains! I'm freezing and starving to death."
"I understand, sir. But for a small fee of just $30 a month, your computer can be protected from viruses."
•
Honestly if a telemarketer called while someone was actually an emergency and they explained that the telemarketer would probably hang up if that's their usual response to anything that deviates script lmao
Look, I never answer my phone either, but if I’m trapped in the wilderness, I’ll gladly sign up for whatever woo bullshit they’re selling in case that subscription ends in them rescuing me.
‘Yes, I’ll pay $6000/month for your penis pills, I’m a woman lost in the mountains. Sign me up and send help.’
Have to be careful these day, wouldn't want bigfoot scam me into signing my car extended warranty.
I have set my phone to silence always, I don’t want to answer anyone in my free time 🤷🏻
Same and when I am hiking I also turn on “Do Not Disturb “ mode. It infuriates my spouse, but oh well. 🤷♂️
Ive had the same conversation with my mom after she complained about me texting after bed time. She just refused to accept that so I just stopped texting her after 8pm to be safe
I get the logic. If it's some random ass number and you're stranded with no charger, why waste time on what might be a spam call? That and I don't want one of the last things I hear to be someone talking about car insurance
Weird. Yeah since like 2009 I have almost never seen a spam call come from the same number twice. I'm in the US.
Meanwhile my phone...The same number always calls you? It's typically a new number every time for my spam calls.
It is both a new number every half hour or so, but the same number in a row. Once they call me between 2 and 20 times. They change numbers
•
I've been getting the same thing! Usually in the morning, too. It's very annoying. Glad to know I'm not alone, at least?
I never get these calls. My secret? I never give my phone number out to anyone except hospitals and other health related professions.
When I gave out my number I got them all the time.
There are local prefixes I will never answer no matter what. I'm looking at you, 243 and 422.
I would've put my phone on power saving mode if I was stranded. It's good for 2 or 3 days. That's without a battery bank or solar panel I would've had in my pack.
Sometimes places call me and it already has their info despite them not being a contact I have saved. Like they have a name not a number, and even a pfp that isn't a colored circle with a number or letter in it. If I was lost and got a call from the fire department that said it was the fire department I think I might pick up.
I don't know how that system works tho. Do you have to register somewhere? Like the opposite of the old white pages where you had to opt out instead of in?
I think it is Google using Google my business and other databases to build a central database of all phone numbers and businesses.
Tbh if I was lost and I got a call come through, I'd answer regardless of what caller ID said. If they were wasting my time, I'd just hang up.
Now, at home when I'm safe and everything is fine... I'm sure I've missed phone interviews at least once or twice letting voice-mail catch it...
That's not what they're talking about. Some people/businesses have a "smart" caller ID so the business name shows up instead of their number, even if you've never heard of or been contacted by them before.
All I remember from caller ID even through the 90's with landline phones was it would show you the number unless you had manually saved more info for said number or they paid the phone company to obfuscate it so it would not even show the number. I wasn't one of those teens that was glued to the phone tho so maybe I just never saw it do more.🤷🏻♂️
I could see them doing that just because they were trying to conserve battery power, however, if they were still getting a signal, couldn't they have still used their map, and thus, weren't really lost? Or was this in the Dark Ages, before smartphones guided us to the light?
There's a pretty good chance they only had 2G. And some carriers who still have 2G have decided to shut down GPRS service, so no internet access.
"I may die but I have principles" -the hiker probably
But seriously, there are people that are in an emergency that do not make rational decisions at the moment.
That’s his first mistake, taking the phone into the woods.
edit: Hey gang it’s me, dipshit. I made this comment in jest originally, because the guy wasn’t really using it as a rescue device to begin with, and because there are some legitimately good reasons why you may want to leave your phone at home or in the car, depending on your goals. Assuming you want to survive, yes, you’ll probably want to bring your phone with you but depending on your equipment and certification you may have even better options.
If you’re going an area where you know you’ll have service, taking a phone is a great idea unless your goal is to connect with nature and you feel the phone is going to get in the way of doing so (e.g., disconnecting from work or spending all day in your tent on the phone). If you take your phone with you and you have spotty service, try getting to a clearing or some view of a developed area or city - your phone is up so high that it’s going to have a pretty good chance at reaching some signal especially on LTE. Basically you have more signal “strength” and a greater distance with each foot you ascend.
If you plan to do this sort of thing often, you should probably get a device made for this sort of thing - one that has the ability to send short messages to 911 which can be done via satellites and not land-locked cell towers; one which has GPS and relays your coordinates to 911 or your friends / family at the push of a button. This comment not sponsored by Apple but the latest iPhones have this capability too.
If you’re going to do this sort of thing as a group at a large gathering like a festival or other event where you suspect the cell towers may be overloaded (e.g., burning man) you can use 900mhz mesh devices which support encryption such as meshtastic.org devices. This is a more diy solution but it allows your friends to have the p2p messaging via your phone’s bluetooth connection and the device, acting as a bridge to others.
There’s also satellite phones if you think you’ll need more than just basic 911 sms services out whereever you’re going. Or, if you have a ham operator’s license you can use portable equipment to talk to the next city, county, state or country over depending on a lot of factors.
It all depends on your goals.
I rode a mountainbike into the woods once, and a helicopter out. I was really happy with my phone.
You can always tell the people who aren't actually outdoors people with these comments.
You should have as many forms of communication as you possible with you in the outdoors.
If the goal isn't "get hopelessly lost because you're not a ranger from Middle Earth like you thought and eventually perish in the wilds."
Then being able to have contact with other human beings in case of trouble is seriously important, as is telling trusted people where you're going and how long you might be.
Just block your boss's number or turn it off if that's the goal lol.
Unless this is one of those "running from the government" kinds of things lol.
Edit: Oh hey I remember you! Hi again! 👋 Lol
If the goal isn't "get hopelessly lost because you're not a ranger from Middle Earth like you thought and eventually perish in the wilds."
Choose your own adventure!
Then being able to have contact with other human beings in case of trouble is seriously important, as is telling trusted people where you're going and how long you might be.
Yeah, having some sort of Sat phone, locator device, ham radio would be a good idea too.
Just block your boss's number or turn it off if that's the goal lol.
I guess that works for people who only have the boss to avoid.
Unless this is one of those "running from the government" kinds of things lol.
Sure, I mean I figure most people are probably online too much and could use with some time in nature, away from their screens but I make no judgement about it. If they think they can get cell service and want to take the net with you, by all means.
Edit: Oh hey I remember you! Hi again! 👋 Lol
I’m sorry, I have a bad memory when it comes to who I interact with. But hello again, friend!
That’s assuming you have cell service. Lots of outdoors places do not. Satphone / locator devices are a good idea though.
Phones are excellent for navigation, and there are multiple topo maps available that can be downloaded and used offline.
Even if your destination doesn't have signal, it will still be useful for part of the journey.
I do also have a PLB for this reason.
That’s what they’re called! Personal locator beacons. The name was escaping me.
Anyway, I just think people are little too dependent on phones and service. Different now a bit with the latest iphone allowing some sat e911 sms features. I rarely get service when I go out camping, personally.
Probably also didn't listen to any voice messages, ever. Then complains that he was never contacted.
I set up my voice mail more then a decade ago, I was told I needed to in order to get a job
I have regretted this decision ever since. I haven't checked my voice mail since high school, when it was explained to me. I get voice mails from my parents and from unknown numbers on a weekly basis. I don't know why my parents leave voice mails - I've not once, ever, listened to their voice mails. I've informed them that I don't even know how to access my voicemails at this point
If I don't pick up, text me or wait for me to call back. Why would I prefer to hear you ramble off the top of your head when you're put on the spot? Just send over a post-it worth of text about why you're calling, and I'll get back to you faster
I used to hope for the day my voicemail filled up, I'm now certain it never will. Maybe one day I'll work up the motivation to change the message to "don't leave a message, text me if I know you and email me if I don't"
Mostly because it's for business. There are a mix of customers, some want it one way some want it another. We don't normally use text. So if your equipment is done and you don't listen to your voice mail. Please don't complain you weren't contacted. Hypothetically. Not saying it's you. But I do get these complaints.