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Phone Calls From A Frightened Little Girl

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RedQueenWildBoy

Junior Acolyte
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Hi there - I'm Beltania - a long time lurker, and occasionally poster of stories about finding fossils in dishwasher tablets...

A while back, I remember reading a (possibly) IHTM story about someone (I think it was a man) who had been alone in their house, and had received a phone call. The voice had sounded like a little girl, around 5 years old, and kept repeating that they were all alone and scared.

After searching the internet, I found this similar story, which appears along with a copied-and-pasted list of generic scary phone stories which had made its way around the internet.

From http://paranormal.about.com/od/trueghos ... -Calls.htm


I recall an incident that happened 20 years ago to my mother. She decided to have a phone installed in her home as she was a diabetic and wanted to be able to be in close contact with me. A day or two after having her phone installed, she started receiving very weird phone calls. She got these calls at night, in the afternoon and in the morning; sometimes she would get these calls four to five times a day. The calls were from a little girl who mom said sounded like she was about four or five years old. The phone would ring, mom would answer it and the little girl would say, "Mamma! Mamma! I want my mamma!" My mom would try to ask her questions, but all the little girl would say was, "Mamma! Mamma! I want my mamma!" This went on for a week, and it freaked my mom out so bad that she had her phone disconnected and never had a phone after that. - Loretta R.
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I seem to remember searching for versions of this story a while back, and finding two in one place - one reporting the story from the UK, and one from somewhere else entirely (from someone who was alone in the house of someone they were visiting), both reporting a very similar thing. I recall that the second story included a bit of speculation as to a possible psychological phenomenon which caused these experiences. In both cases, the people who received the calls were alone in a house.

I'd like to find these two stories, so I can compare them to the story above, and any more that I come across.

Many thanks for your patience. Sorry if this is something which gets brought up a lot - I can't guarantee that my lurking is consistent!
 
I've had my fair share of weird phone calls over the years too.
Mostly, it's kids just messing about, dialling at random.
 
Our little boy (18 months old) has always been fascinated by the phone and pressing the buttons to dial numbers.

I think it's entirely conceivable that a little 4 or 5 year old could manage to successfully dial a number to connect with somebody (even at random) and might expect to speak to their "mama" on the other end, becoming upset to hear another voice.

I've always got an open mind, and it would freak me out too, but of all the stories you see on here, this is potentially one of the more readily explained (I hope).
 
There was a story in the news about a year ago about a couple of schoolgirls messing about and pretending to be a little girl whose mother had died, phoning people up in prank calls that resulted in a widespread hunt. The joke was on them when the cops traced the calls and they were caught out.
 
Thanks for your help!

I've just looked at the news story about the schoolgirls - that's very interesting. It certainly strikes a chord with the fact that the 'little girl' in all three of the stories I remember seemed pretty reluctant to give any details about the situation.

It's possible that the similarities in the stories on the part of the call's recipients (i.e. that they tended to be alone and in an uncomfortable situation) were a coincidence.
 
I remember a few letters to the editor in FT magazine about this subject several years ago, possibly as long as a decade ago. Unfortunately, I no longer have my old copies of the magazine so I can't provide the numbers of the relevant issues. If I recall correctly, in each case the person who answered the phone suspected the caller may have been an adult pretending to be a child. Also, the person was alone at the time, as you've stated. There was some discussion about the possibility of it being a psychological phenomenon. Or it could just have been kids being silly, as suggested above.
 
I suspect the phone calls were either a prank or the story was a hoax or urban legend.

I had a strange thing happen on my cell phone recently. I had my brother's cell phone number listed in my phone as "Bro Cell". Then one day my brother got totally fed up with his cell phone service and had it terminated. He still has his cell phone...he just can't use it. A few months after he shut off his service I got a text message from Bro Cell. It didn't make much sense. I responded something to it. Awhile later I got another message that made no sense so I called him back. A stranger answered the phone and had NO interest in talking to me at all and invited me to never call him again.

Next time I saw my brother I mentioned that to him and asked if he'd lost his phone and he replied that he still has it in his possession. So I can understand that the phone company re-issued his old number to someone else and my phone would recognize that number as Bro Cell no matter WHO owned the number. I can't understand why, if that happened, could the new owner of that number have made such a longshot of a wrong number as to reach ME.
 
had you texted the new owner of the number thinking it was your broseph ... that wouldve at least got your number onto the other handset ...
 
That is conceivable, but I'm sure I hadn't done anything like that....especially not in the timeframe immediately preceding the arrival of my text message. Once my brother announced he'd shut off his service I stopped using the number.

And I have to suspect that if I'd inadvertently texted something to a number owned by a stranger he might've responded with something like, "Who are you"? What I got was a statement of some sort that made no sense to me. It seemed as if he'd texted something to someone who he expected to know enough to fill in the blanks....an acquaintance.
 
Late one night, many years ago, my brother received an unnerving phone call. At first there was the sound of sobbing, then a young-sounding girl said "I'm lost....I'm lost..." before the line went dead. He didn't have caller ID, so he had no idea where the call had come from. He was sure the voice was mine, he thought maybe I'd come to the city with friends and got lost in the middle of the night. He called my number to see if I was home. I was, so it certainly wasn't me. But he said he could have sworn it was my voice.

When he told me what had happened, I had a terrible feeling that in some parallel universe, another version of me was wandering lost in the dark, maybe never to get home again. And that it was only happenstance that it wasn't me. The feeling was so strong that I was actually more careful about my safety after that.

We both sometimes wonder what became of the girl who called...
 
Brrr, Bunny, that gave me chills. :shock:
 
I've always found public telephones oddly creepy. Maybe becasue most people now have mobiles, or home phones so a public phone would only be used in an emergency. Yet they seem lonely. :?

As a child I'd go to the local phone box with my younger nephew and we would put 20p or whatever in the phone and make up telephone numbers to see if we could get one right. Once we did and a lady answered us saying that we had rung a hotel! Reading this thread, I was waiting for a story of someone working on the front desk of a hotel when they answered the telephone and some children were laughing :shock: :p
 
GingerTabby said:
I remember a few letters to the editor in FT magazine about this subject several years ago, possibly as long as a decade ago. Unfortunately, I no longer have my old copies of the magazine so I can't provide the numbers of the relevant issues. If I recall correctly, in each case the person who answered the phone suspected the caller may have been an adult pretending to be a child. Also, the person was alone at the time, as you've stated. There was some discussion about the possibility of it being a psychological phenomenon. Or it could just have been kids being silly, as suggested above.
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I remember that letter, where if the teller would phone up a certain number in a call box with his friends they would hear a disoriented voice on the other end. Can't recall if it was a child or not, though. It did happen quite a lot until the young callers got bored of their game, and now there's no explanation for it.
 
bunnymousekitt said:
Late one night, many years ago, my brother received an unnerving phone call. At first there was the sound of sobbing, then a young-sounding girl said "I'm lost....I'm lost..." before the line went dead. He didn't have caller ID, so he had no idea where the call had come from. He was sure the voice was mine, he thought maybe I'd come to the city with friends and got lost in the middle of the night. He called my number to see if I was home. I was, so it certainly wasn't me. But he said he could have sworn it was my voice.

When he told me what had happened, I had a terrible feeling that in some parallel universe, another version of me was wandering lost in the dark, maybe never to get home again. And that it was only happenstance that it wasn't me. The feeling was so strong that I was actually more careful about my safety after that.

We both sometimes wonder what became of the girl who called...
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This has triggered off an old memory of something that happened to me 20-odd years ago.
At the time, I was still living with my parents and my sister, who was married, lived elsewhere.

One night, about 2 in the morning, we were all woken up by a frantic phone call from my sister who was in tears. I got the phone first, half asleep.

My sister was surprised to hear my voice - she said that I'd just phoned her from a motorway after a serious car accident, and apparently my Dad was with me.

I tried to assure her that we were OK and that nothing had happened, but she didn't believe me, becoming a bit emotional - so I handed the phone over to my Dad, who had also been woken up.

We both told her that she must have had a very vivid dream. Placated and satisfied that we were OK, she hung up and we went back to bed.

The thought has occurred to me that a version of myself and my Dad from an alternate universe may have somehow managed to call my sister that night...
 
Some incredible stories on this thread!

I was about to say that my only phone-related weirdness involved being called up at home by two or three people over the last five or so years looking for the phone number for the mental health charity 'MIND', despite my phone number differing completely from theirs.

However, I've also had a memory triggered. About eight years ago, my dad was in hospital with a heart condition (he is doing fine now). While he was in hospital, I was trying to make a phone call from my home landline using the hospital's very confusing telephone system. I can't remember how it worked, but I seem to remember having to call a switchboard, and being patched through to the individual you were trying to reach. I made my way past what was either an automated system or a human operator, and was put on hold to wait. Suddenly, I head a male voice screaming a very abrupt burst of what I can only assume was verbal abuse, before hanging up. This was very definitely not my dad, and I was not able to distinguish any words.

Now I'm wondering who it was in the hospital that I got through to that night, and whether or not it was a product of my mind, having experienced anxiety and depression for a lot of my young life, and being at a very difficult stage in my life at that particular point.
 
One night, about 2 in the morning, we were all woken up by a frantic phone call from my sister who was in tears. I got the phone first, half asleep.

My sister was surprised to hear my voice - she said that I'd just phoned her from a motorway after a serious car accident, and apparently my Dad was with me.

I tried to assure her that we were OK and that nothing had happened, but she didn't believe me, becoming a bit emotional - so I handed the phone over to my Dad, who had also been woken up.

We both told her that she must have had a very vivid dream. Placated and satisfied that we were OK, she hung up and we went back to bed.
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Terrifying! Has your sister spoken about it since? Was she able to decide more clearly whether or not it was a dream?
 
HenryFort said:
general phone weirdness thread here
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Yes, despite my love of general phone weirdery, I'm suddenly aware it's turning into another 'tell us your creepy phone stories' thread.

Back to the subject of the Scared Little Girl - I'm about to locate my IHTM magbooks to see if I can find any versions of the story in there.
 
as someone posted upthread i think the correspondence may have been in the letters pages
 
Beltania said:
One night, about 2 in the morning, we were all woken up by a frantic phone call from my sister who was in tears. I got the phone first, half asleep.

My sister was surprised to hear my voice - she said that I'd just phoned her from a motorway after a serious car accident, and apparently my Dad was with me.

I tried to assure her that we were OK and that nothing had happened, but she didn't believe me, becoming a bit emotional - so I handed the phone over to my Dad, who had also been woken up.

We both told her that she must have had a very vivid dream. Placated and satisfied that we were OK, she hung up and we went back to bed.
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Terrifying! Has your sister spoken about it since? Was she able to decide more clearly whether or not it was a dream?
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We have never spoken about it since.
 
Mythopoeika said:
We have never spoken about it since.
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That's too bad - she might have been able to provide more information.

You never know...maybe both our cases were a "what might have been" scenario. Or the kind of warning one always wishes they'd had when something traumatic happens.

(okay, I'm done derailing now - sorry about that, OP.)
 
Hi! Pretty sure the stories you refer to are in It Happened To Me, Volume 1. I read it not long ago and it sits on my Kindle still. I will double check, but it's now time for me to rest my aching eyes. Night all!
 
Re: Phone calls from a scared little girl -anyone remember t

The phone would ring, mom would answer it and the little girl would say, "Mamma! Mamma! I want my mamma!" My mom would try to ask her questions, but all the little girl would say was, "Mamma! Mamma! I want my mamma!"
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Anyone else think, "Are you my mummy?"
 
The Little Voice

I'm the author of the experience that was reprinted as 'The Little Voice' in It Happened to Me Vol. 1 (with a nice illustration by Etienne). It's in my porfolio of (mostly) fortean articles here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremyglover/3615230960/in/set-72157624300775739

The main point, I guess, is that while the caller sounded like a genuine child (although I'm not even 100% about that), the call had the feel of a hoax OR something more fortean, even supernatural - odd and unreal, anyway. The girl had her lonely and frightened 'script' and my efforts to develop the conversation failed. It was altogether quite an unnerving event. It was probably most likely on the lines something I and a friend - and I expect quite a lot of kids - used to dabble in, prank calls. In days when the possibilities for amusement were much more limited, phoning up a stranger 'in character' could be hilarious fun, but we always tended towards absurd scenarios a la Bart Simpson, nothing like the 'I need help' scenarios that adults find so unnerving, and resultingly have found their way into this thread.

Of course, kids can do strange things that in an adult context seem utterly inappropriate. Once on my way out from Primrose Hill, London, to a gig I noticed a stone wrapped in paper on the street right by the bridge to Chalk Farm. The paper was a note that said "Help, I've been kidnapped". I showed it to the police at Kentish Town Station, who grumbled about it happening just before they were due to knock off, but still took it very seriously. I was taken back to the street, and 'undercover' with a plain clothes detective, retraced the route past the house to subtly point out where I found it. The police knocked at the house and found some kids who were apparently playing a game, so nothing happened.

On a related subject, I've also had the experience of a public phonebox ringing as I was walking past it. Twice, or even three times, this has happened to me, the first time at the phonebox at the corner of the Barnoon cemetery in St. Ives, Cornwall, around dusk. A simple wrong number. The second time was just a few months later in Durham at the dead of night, which was an even stranger coincidence as I'd ended up there completely by random chance, having hitchhiked that day from Cornwall with friends. It was as far as we could get in one day and our endpoint was marked by this odd synchronicity, after which we went back home.
 
Thanks for the follow up, Carfax. I wonder if prank calls are less prevalent now that mobile phones are in widespread use, when if you're considering phoning people up for mischief you realise it's your own money you're wasting? Or are the calls easier to be traced?
 
gncxx said:
Thanks for the follow up, Carfax. I wonder if prank calls are less prevalent now that mobile phones are in widespread use, when if you're considering phoning people up for mischief you realise it's your own money you're wasting? Or are the calls easier to be traced?
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Another thing could be the way numbers are stored. With everything going digital, who has the Yellow Pages by their phone nowadays, or even an address book? (By the way, how do we know that prank calls are less prevalent?)

There still seems a very very fine line between the tradition of obvious silly prank calls and the 'lost child' calls, which seem to come from a kind of parallel universe, as I think someone has already mentioned here and which I can relate to. What I can't get a handle on is the motivation for calling a stranger and pretending to be a child in distress...? What's does the hoaxer in this scenario get out of it, what impells them?
 
There's a feeling of power over the victim, I suppose, and no matter how small that is it is significant to some minds.
 
I have no evidence, but I suspect prank calls are less common now, for 2 reasons I can think of: first, caller ID sorta spoils it all, and second, most kids now have a lot more things to do before they get bored enough to think, "I know, phone up a stranger!" But who knows. I don't think it was ever all that prevalent.
 
On a similar note, does anyone else recall a letter to FT several years ago in which it was claimed that if a certain number was dialled the (presumably recorded) message heard at the other end was something along the lines of "Suzie's Dead"?

I think the writer of this letter claimed that they called this number several times in the 1970s and it was common knowledge amongst kids that the reply would always be the same (hence the implication that it was a recorded message).

This does seem to suggest a 1970s 'playground contemporary legend' of some sort; alternatively, there may have been a pre-recorded message (much like the speaking clock) of a utilitarian nature that was misinterpreted as a more sinister message if heard by a child or young adult.
 
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