Here is the situation... a friend was a survivor of the cancer epidemic in Woburn,Mass in the 1960s of which a book and movie were made about. The friend was an abandoned child and had no known family history, as if it was known, it was withheld from them. After the book came out and the movie was in the planning stage, they began having phone problems. The friend had no criminal background whatsoever. Here is what they noted:
1) anonymous calls coming in which appeared on the caller id as a constant stream of changing numbers of which standard user call tracing features had no effect2) Friend had a Lucent digital answering machine. One day, it was powered OFF and the phone rang. They let it ring and ring then the call dropped. Immediately after, the phone rang again and after several rings, the answering machine powered ON,as if some back-end circuitry could power the unit up with a voltage spike sent across the line.The machine had a built in intercom feature and this was activated and they could hear low office sounds
3) Every day, the friend got calls from the same phone number. They tried calling back the number all days and hours for several months and it either rang and rang or was busy. There was never a live answer or message of any kind. One day they tried the number from their work phone and it rang and picked up! On the other end they could hear sounds coming from the building they were in. No one spoke and when they went dashing out to the area to investigate they found a phone off the hook which apparently was being stored in a desk. They reported it to management and the calls stopped. The caller had been calling always at times when that person was at work and calling their home, as if someone was entering their apartment while they were at work and the lookout at work was communicating back to them.4) Other friends reporting that calls were being answered by mysterious individuals when the person lived alone. Or that bogus messages indicating the phone was not in service when they called. Prior to this, a man with Tennessee license plates who carried a gun always moved into the apartment next door. He told everyone he worked "in construction". Every time my friend came home, within 15 minutes the man appeared and did not leavee until they left,except when exiting out a side entrance and getting into a separate car(man drove an old pickup).One day the friend came home and as they pulled into the driveway, a Verizon phone company truck was leaving. They looked in and saw the "construction worker", with totally shocked face,driving the phone company truck!! Within 2 weeks that man had moved out. It has been speculated a calling circle or similar had been set up or that a third party was intercepting phone calls to the person and perhaps destroying their chances to find employment and to sever friendship ties.