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My old extension number at work was 1181 and all the Directory Enquiries numbers in the UK start with 118. So if people forgot to press 9 for an outside line and just started dialling, they'd come through to me. Somehow they'd miss the part where I answered with my name and "Medicines Management Team" and roll straight into asking me for telephone numbers.
I came back from annual leave once to find a message from a woman who was sectioned. She'd obviously managed to get access to the internal telephone system. She was marvellously lucid and explained that she'd called me to get the telephone number for the BBC, but as I was on the line she wanted to warn me of a few things, namely that the world was going to end in 48 hours.
She explained that as I was being so helpful, she could save me, and a couple of my friends if I wanted. She knew famous people - the Royal Family & Phil Collins were mentioned - and the Beastie Boys were on their way to pick her up in their private plane, and that's how we would be saved. She not only correctly named the 3 Beastie Boys but also used my name throughout the message (something that genuine callers never seem to get right, leaving messages for Kerry, Gerald, Carol etc).
This was mixed in with complaints about how she was being treated on the ward (they drugged her in order to steal from her apparently). The message cut out after a while, I think she would have been happy to continue for much longer.
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