FALSE CALLS.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18895, 10 January 1927, Page 8

FALSE CALLS.

HOAXES IN AUCKLAND. ANNOYANCE AND DISTRESS. ITHE TBEBS Sp«cUl Swrieo.] AUCKLAND, January 9. That perverted sense of humour and decency vhich finds malicious pleasure in inflicting needless pain or inconvenience on other people per medium of telephone messages has Intel} been opernting in Devonport. . Tradesmen have received oriei*, which, when delivered, have been repudiated at the address given and taxis have been sent careering round the countryside to unknown people at strcei numbers which do nob exist. An unbalanced mischief-maker achieved his masterpiece however, when he or she dispatched an undertaker from Auckland to the hoine of n well-known resident of Stanley Bay with urgent instructions to prepare for a funeral. It was- pouring with rain, but the telephonist was so insistent that the journey was undertaken with all haste. When tho undertaker arrived at tho house lie announced to the lady wno met him at the door that "he had come to get ready for Mr so-and-so s funeral.''

As the gentleman in question was then absent from home, and known to bo in somewhat dangerous circumstances, the blunt directness of the announcement was a terrible shock to the lady and to members of the family, who, in the absence of any other information, could not but believe the worst.

Telegrams were at once dispatched, and inquiries from police headquarters soon revealed the falsity of the news, but the unfortunate victims of the harebrained hoax have not yet recovered.

The telephone department maintain a listening-in service and any attempts at such malicious practices are subject to police prosecution if the culprits are discovered.