In today’s story, a person who moved to Australia got a new phone and a new phone number.

The problem was that many of the phone calls were from people who were trying to reach the person who used to have this phone number.

Eventually, the new owner of the phone number didn’t want to deal with the wrong number calls anymore and found a way to get revenge.

It involves a lot of sand.

Let’s see how the story plays out…

I had just moved to Australia and gotten a new phone, but as it turns out my number was someone else’s old number.

Every other week I’d get calls by a tradie who wanted to know why I wasn’t “on site, mate,” or “what I wanted done with building project ABC ..”.

Every time I explained at length that they got the wrong number and quite often folks on the other end were absolute rude.

Or thought I was lying and insisted I answered their questions or show up “on site, NOW”.

He contacted the guy who used to have this phone number.

I was over it, so I googled my own number and did some digging and eventually found out the guy who had my number before, then his new number and then I called him.

I politely explained my dilemma, pointed out that there were two websites still having his old (my now new) number and if he could please change this and let his contacts know about his new number and to delete the old one as it was getting quite tedious for me.

By that time I had used my number for work, visa applications and landlords and friends and changing it would have been a huge pain.

I explained all of that.

The person who used to have the phone number was not at all helpful.

Well, of course he was just as pleasant as most of his contacts and told me something along the lines of “I don’t give a care, mate, that’s not my problem. Sort your own stuff out, mate.”

Well, the universe provides and so I got a great opportunity to do just that only a few weeks later.

I received a call in the early hours of one morning by another disgruntled guy telling me he was early and demanding to know where I wanted the sand put down and how to get in.

I asked what sand and was told he had a full truckload of sand as ordered and no one was on-site and it was all fenced off.

He decided not to explain the wrong number situation.

Very briefly did I think about launching into my explanation, but I was tired and over it and then realised the opportunity provided.

I snapped back at him with no uncertainty: “Mate, it’s all good, dump it all right in the driveway, front of the fence, we’ll sort it out when we get there”

The guy said: “You sure mate? It’s a lot of sand.”

Me: “Absolutely sure mate, thanks a lot”

Him: “Alright then boss” and hangs up.

The guy who used to have the number called OP, angry.

Well, I go back to bed, snoozing for another hour with a big smile until my phone rings again.

I see it’s old mate with his new number who I had saved when I called him a few weeks ago.

I pick up rather chipper, and he doesn’t waste any time launching into a series of swear words.

He has no access to the site and that he has to move a literal tonne of sand by hand and whether or not I told the sand guy to dump it all there.

I replied: “You told me to sort this out myself, this is me sorting this out. You can remove the numbers and let your contacts know or not. Totally up to you. Mate.”

He never got a wrong number call again.

He was fuming, called me a few more choice words, promising to find me and a lot more before we ended the conversation.

However the numbers disappeared from the internet really quickly after that and I never got another call again.

I still have my number and every time I see a truck with sand I chuckle to myself thinking of this guy moving a tonne of sand by hand and losing a fair few hours of labour because he was an idiot and couldn’t be bothered sending a few texts.

It’s really odd that the guy who used to have that phone number wouldn’t see how it could be a problem for his contacts to be mistakenly calling a complete stranger.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story…

This reader has been getting wrong number calls for 7 years.

Another reader likes that the revenge didn’t do any permanent damage.

Seriously, how did the person who used to have that phone number not realize something bad was going to happen?

Here’s a similar story about a hotel.

Another reader also played along with the wrong number phone calls as a form of revenge.

It seems like sometimes pretending to be someone you’re not is the only way to get people realize there’s a problem.

At least it was in this case.

If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.