One night a teenage girl was babysitting two young children whom she sat for
regularly. She arrived around 5 pm, made dinner, played with the children, and
finally put them to bed at 7:30. As she sat downstairs and watched television,
the phone rang.
“Hello?”
A man was on the other end.
“At 10:30 I’m going to kill the kids and then I’m coming after you.”
She hung up immediately. At first, she was scared, but then brushed away the
fear, thinking it was probably a crank call. But at 8:00, the phone rang again.
“Hello?”
“At 10:30, I’m going to kill the kids and then I’m coming after you.”
It was the man again. She became more frightened. “Maybe I should go
upstairs and check on the kids,” she thought. But then, she decided against
it, thinking, “I’m sure it’s a prank call.” But at 8:30, the phone rang
again. She didn’t want to answer, but the phone continued to ring and she was
afraid it would disturb the children, so she picked it up. “Hello?”
“It’s getting closer to the time, and I’m going to kill the kids and
then I’m coming to get you.”
Now she was really scared, so she decided to call the police. After telling
the operator the story, the operator said, “Okay, don’t worry now, we’ll
take care of it. If he calls back again, just try to keep him on the line so we
can trace the call.”
So the girl sat nervously, waiting for the phone to ring. And at nine
o’clock, the phone rang again.
“Hello?”
“It’s almost time, and I’m going to kill the kids, and then I’m
coming for you.”
But this time, she didn’t hang up, and tried to get more information out of
him: “Who are you?” and “Why are you doing this?” But he just kept
repeating, “I’m coming at 10:30, and I’m going to kill the kids, and then
I’m coming after you.”
So finally the girl hung up. She was terrified by this time but she
couldn’t do anything but sit and wait. She wanted to check on the children,
but she was frightened to move from the downstairs living room. Within minutes
though, the phone rang again. She picked it up cautiously. It was the police
operator.
“Get out of the house right now. Don’t go upstairs for the children.
Don’t do a thing. Just get out now. There are police officers waiting outside,
and they’ll take care of everything.”
The poor girl was scared out of her mind. She kept thinking she should go
upstairs for the children, but the operator had told her not to - she should
just do as she was told, and the police officers would take care of it. So she
quickly ran outside, and there, the officers were waiting for her. As they put
her in the squad car, she asked about the children. The officer told her that it
was too late. When they traced the call, they found that it was coming from a
line in the house, and the man had been calling from upstairs. He’d been in
the house the entire time he’d been talking to her, and he’d already
murdered both children, who were found torn limb-to-limb in their rooms. If she
had waited any longer, he would have gotten her as well.
