When I first read about it, the whole thing made me horribly uncomfortable. Not just because of the extremely disturbing and unsettling nature of the scam, but because I have a close friend that had been engaging in a similar type of scam. And maybe even to a worse extent. If you haven't heard of it, here's what you need to know: Basically, a man (or several different men) called into an unconfirmed number of fast food joints and grocery stores pretending to be a police officer and demanding to speak to a manager. The scammer, in most cases, would then convince the manager that an employee (usually a young woman) had been accused of stealing something from a shopper's bag or purse. Through psychological manipulation and exploiting human obedience to authority figures, the scammer eventually convinced dozens of managers to preform strip searches on their employees in the back office. And sometimes worse. All for his own sick pleasure. Of course, the scammer would have an answer for everything, ensure the manager that the police would be arriving shortly, and that the strip search would help prove the innocence of the employee. In one particular instance, a manager's fiancee was asked to help guard a teenage girl until the police arrived. The fiancee, an apparent opportunist rapist, was coerced into sexually assaulting the employee. The majority of the calls took place between 1992 and 2004. If you doubt the validity of the story, all of the appropriate information can be found here
It's really hard to believe that this all really happened. But it did. And it was harder to believe that I'd had a front row seat to similar scams and had never done anything about it. I felt a hell of a lot more than uneasy when I first read about the scams. A friend of mine, Mike, had been taking part in similar activities since the day I had met him. I'd been blind to how serious the situation was for a long time, and it made me sick to my stomach.
Let's start at the beginning. I was working at a Walmart about a week after I'd moved into the city to go to college. A young man was shopping in the electronics section, and I asked if he needed help finding anything. He told me he was just looking around and that he had no place to be. He didn't look like much. He was about 17 and chubby as a garden gnome; a Double Big Gulp glued into his left hand. We chatted for a couple minutes and I told him that I'd just moved to the city from a few hours away. I introduced myself. He introduced himself. Mike Schwartz. I thought the name sounded vaguely familiar and his next comment confirmed it.
"Dad's the mayor here. I'm not really into that political shit, though, so don't bust my balls for my old man's work."
He spouted it out the second I started trying to place his last name, almost like clock work. From his reaction, I assumed that his Dad was a fairly right-wing leader and Mike wasn't exactly a big fan of his ideas. I almost laughed, and said that I didn't really follow politics, so he had no reason to worry. We chatted a little while longer and, eventually, Mike dared me to make a prank announcement over the intercom. I declined at first, but he ensured me that it was a harmless prank. I dialed *87 on the phone and said some stupid movie line, like "No, I am your father." Or something like that. It's been a while. We laughed about it for a few minutes and then he went on his way.
The next day at work, a loud screech came over the intercom. It only lasted a few seconds, but I heard it clearly. Seconds later, my department phone rang. It was Mike.
"Did it work?" he asked.
"What?" I responded.
"The intercom."
"Oh, yeah. Wait, that was YOU?"
Mike laughed.
"I convinced the lady at the front desk that I was preforming routine maintenance on the intercom system. She patched me right in after I dropped the fact that I knew that *87 was the code," Mike said.
I realized that Mike had watched me type in the code the day before. I remember thinking about what a sneaky bastard he was and laughing about it. He asked me to write down his phone number and call him later. And I did. I was intrigued by him. Writing this all down, I can't believe I didn't see the signs. The guy was a bit of a sociopath, but I'd only seen the tip of the iceberg. Over the course of the next week, Mike and I hung out about 3 times. We smoked weed and watched movies (I'd been dealing on the side to make a little more money for college.) We drove around listening to music and Mike's favorite podcasts (he was really into psychology and loved horror stories about the human condition.) He was a bit of a computer whiz too, so he showed me the best plug-ins and software to put on my PC. I really liked the guy. Looking back, it was like he was trying to earn my trust. He repeatedly told me that he'd never really trusted a friend like he trusted me, and surely not this quickly.
Then things started getting a little odd. Mike invited me to his Skype group chat one night, and I accepted. There were five other people in the chat. Mike introduced me to the gang. They ranged from a 16 year old squeaky-voiced-teen to a grizzly sounding 28 year old with mild temper problems. Mike told me that we were going to be listening to some prank phone calls. The group didn't speak much. We let Mike do the talking. And we were dead silent during calls. Things started off innocently enough. He'd call a pizza place and use a Bart Simpson one-liner. Or he'd call a 7-11 and ask them if their refrigerator was running. Then he started pushing the envelope a little bit.
You have to understand that Mike was an absolute master at doing voices. I'd never seen anything like it. If anything, the guy had a future in voice acting. No one ever suspected that they were speaking to a teenager. He called a pizza place pretending to be from corporate, told them that the computer system was down and that they'd have to repeat the last few delivery orders to him; including the customer's phone number and address. Then he called the customers and acted as though he was the manager of the pizza place. Mike informed them that their pizza had been sent out with expired ingredients and they were in danger of food poisoning. Then he called a 7-11 and convinced the poor cashier that the shipment of bread they'd received was tainted and that they'd have to dispose of it outside. He convinced 3 convenience stores to throw out all of their bread like that. I asked Mike if he was worried about getting into trouble with the law, but he reminded me that his father, the Mayor, wouldn't let anything happen to him. If anything, he was worried about the rest of the listeners getting into trouble. So I kept my mouth shut.
At this point I was getting a little uncomfortable, but the group, while quiet, was supportive of Mike. So I followed suit. Mike started asking me for phone numbers of people that I didn't talk to that much anymore. I gave him the phone number for a girl I used to know who had had a bit of trouble with the law. Mike called her, posing as a police officer, and convinced her that units were on the way to pick her up. She was hysterical. Her boyfriend was screaming in the background. He started asking sexual questions about her and her boyfriend's relationship, and to my surprise, she answered all of them. I was bewildered at what people would tell an authority figure. But the rush of listening to Mike do the calls kept me coming back on a nightly basis. It was like watching a hypnotist or a brain-washer at work.
Then, one day, he just stopped doing it. We still hung out regularly for the next couple years, but whenever I asked him about the calls, he dodged the question. I figured that someone had called the police and he'd gotten into trouble. But I wasn't sure. I'd nearly forgotten about the whole thing until one evening, about three weeks ago, when I got a surprise Skype call from Mike. All of the regular guys were also connected to the call.
I was curious, so I stayed on the call. Mike called the local mall and identified himself as a police officer. He spoke to security and informed them that a potential shooter was in the mall, vaguely describing a young Middle-Eastern man. The security officer bought his story and apprehended an innocent 18 year-old kid that was shopping at a clothing store. Then Mike walked the security guard through the process of giving him a body cavity search. And he pushed the boundaries even more from there. He spoke as though the young man in question was a suspected terrorist, and coerced the naive security guard into torturing the man for information. The security guard was the perfect target, too. He mentioned several times that he had a bias against brown people and thought they were no good for the country. And Mike used that.
I was horrified, but I couldn't bring myself to leave the call. The call ended with the young man tied to a radiator in the back of the mall and toothpicks jammed under each of his finger nails, begging for help. Another security guard eventually walked into the back and ended the situation. As soon as the call ended, I texted Mike and told him that I wouldn't be attending the Skype sessions ever again and that if the police asked me any questions, I'd be answering them. He replied with "Ok. Just remember that I know you deal." And that was that. I tried to forget about it but I was terrified. I couldn't be arrested for drug trafficking. No fucking way. And with Mike's personal pull in the city, I wasn't going to risk anything. I flushed my whole stash that night. He was fucking blackmailing me.
I was driving to work the following week, having pushed the situation to the back of my mind, and I saw a billboard on the side of the freeway. "Re-elect Peter Wolf as Mayor." Not Schwartz? As I had told Mike, I didn't follow politics, and especially not local politics. But I couldn't believe that I'd never followed up on his claim that he was the Mayor's son. He had been lying to me the whole time. He used a common name to make me think I'd heard it before. Was his plan to use his fake status as the Mayor's son to keep me from going to the police or just to keep me feeling safe about listening in on the phone calls? Maybe both? I started to question my own mind. Had Mike been playing me this whole time too? Lying about every detail of his life and identity? I contacted the other members of the Skype chat and asked them if they intended to go to the police. They were all scared to talk to anyone, but I informed them I'd probably be going to the police after I wrapped my head around the whole situation. I was done fucking with the law.
I searched the internet to see if any police reports popped up, and that's when I found out about the Mount Washington phone scam and the dozens of others. The scams had resulted in arrests, multi-million dollar lawsuits, and worse. Until that moment, I hadn't really grasped the gravity of the situation. Had Mike been brainwashing me too? That was when I really started to worry about my own safety. I thought about going to the police, but ultimately decided that I had to think about it. I didn't want to be implicated. I figured I'd ponder going to the police for another week before I made my decision.
Then, only a few nights ago, the police contacted me via phone. I decided immediately that I'd come clean if they asked me anything about Mike or the calls. Officer Brant told me that Mike had been arrested over the last phone call and had named me as a co-conspirator. I immediately told them about how Mike had lied to me about his father being the Mayor to pressure me into not going to the police and that I'd never joined in on the calls myself. Officer Brant sounded irrate and asked if I had recorded any of the Skype calls. I told him no, I hadn't. Then he told me that Mike hadn't only been arrested for the previous phone call, but that they'd been trying to track him for years and that he was on the chopping block for hundreds of scam phone calls that got carried out of hand. Apparently a psycho-analyst had pegged Mike as an extremely dangerous sociopath and master manipulator. They warned me that if Mike ever got back into contact with me, I should immediately exit the situation.
I was absolutely terrified at this point. What kind of monster was this guy? What else had he done? I was hysterical at this point, shouting about my innocence and swearing loudly into the phone. The officer demanded that I calm down, and asked me to refer to him as "sir," and nothing else. I complied. He managed to calm me down enough to tell him my version of the events. I was promised immunity if I complied. He told me that I was likely extremely susceptible to psychological manipulation, and needed to be careful.
Officer Brant also informed me that Mike had posted bail only a few minutes ago, so he would be out on the streets. He stressed that it was crucial to protect myself until they were able to send a squad car to bring me in for my testimony. He walked me through a step by step process to protect myself from any further manipulation by Mike. He had me seal my front door shut with spare furniture and cover my windows with tinfoil. Then he asked me to unplug my internet and any landline phones I had. I complied. I wasn't going to let Mike get to me again. He told me that as soon as we were done speaking, I was to place my cell phone inside of a secure drawer with the battery removed. At least until a police escort could be sent to my apartment. And I was, under no circumstances, allowed to contact anyone until the squad car arrived. I agreed.
The final step in the process was to ensure that I was unable to hear Mike if he were to show up at the house to try and manipulate me into helping him. He asked me to place cotton in my ears. I complied. I put the phone back to my ear, and he asked if I could still hear him. I could, so he informed me that we'd have to take more drastic measures for protection's sake. He asked if I had anything long and sharp that I could stick into my ears. I found a couple of pencils in a drawer, and he walked me through Standard Temporary Deafness procedure. It worked perfectly. I jammed the pencils into my ears like I was churning butter until I couldn't hear his voice, or anything, anymore. Officer Brant began to text message me after that, ensuring me that the deafness would go away within 72 hours. He ordered me to stay put and follow the instructions I'd been given. I complied. I wasn't going to let Mike beat me. I removed my cell phone battery and placed both pieces into a kitchen drawer. And then I waited.
I made it 3 days. Until today. I started to worry that Mike had gotten to the police and somehow wriggled out of the situation. I reconnected my internet and searched to see if there was anything in the news about it. Nothing. My best guess is that they're still gathering evidence. So while I was online, I figured I'd share my story here before disconnecting my internet again. This subreddit is anonymous anyway, so it's not like anyone would find out I told anyone about the situation when I wasn't supposed to. How long do you guys think I should wait before I contact someone? What the fuck do I do from here? I'll probably come back to check your responses in a few more days, I don't want to keep my internet on and get into trouble with Officer Brant.
I'm just really scared and want to see Mike brought to justice. That prick will never get inside of my head again. No fucking way.
Submitted July 15, 2017 at 02:17AM by snoweveryseason http://ift.tt/2sZKd7N nosleep
No comments:
Post a Comment