Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!texbell!vector!telecom-gateway From: zellich@stl-07sima.army.mil (Rich Zellich) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Wrong Number Message-ID: Date: 10 Oct 89 12:59:10 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Lines: 21 Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 440, message 12 of 12 There was an odd letter in the letters-to-the-editor in the St. Louis Post- Dispatch last weekend: A writer from Australia was asking *anyone* locally to help some poor woman who was worried about her water being cut off by the utility company. It seems that he answered the phone and the caller was some woman who was worried about her water being cut off because of a billing problem; he told her she must have a wrong number, she read off his number, he asked where she was calling from, she hesitated and then said "St. Louis" and hung up. Worried that she might actually have her water cut off, he wrote the letter to the St. Louis newspaper in an attempt to help. The Post-Dispatch people did just enough checking to find that the number in question was an East-side (Illinois, that is; East side of the Mississippi to us St. Louisians) number in area code 618. Apparently the woman should have dialed 1-618-xxx-yyyy and instead somehow dialed 011-61-8-xxx-yyyy to reach a valid number in Australia. Sometimes you *can* get an overseas number without a lot of hassle!