Yelling At Telemarketers Leads To Arrest

BotScout writes "An Ohio man, fed up with deceptive junk mail, made the mistake of losing his temper while on the phone with a St. Louis company pitching an extended auto-service contract. Now he finds himself behind bars, where he is charged with making a terrorist threat and is being held on $45,000 bond. According to court documents, Charles W. Papenfus, 43, allegedly told a sales representative during a May 18 telephone call that he would burn down the building and kill the employees and their families. He was indicted for making a terrorist threat, a Class D felony; and he could be sentenced to up to four years in prison if convicted. I get a lot of this kind of junk mail too, but I usually just call their 800 number and waste as much of their time as possible."

I could burn this place down.

[rhook]

And I said, I don't care if they lay me off either, because I told, I told Bill that if they move my desk one more time, then, then I'm, I'm quitting, I'm going to quit. And, and I told Don too, because they've moved my desk four times already this year, and I used to be over by the window, and I could see the squirrels, and they were married, but then, they switched from the Swingline to the Boston stapler, but I kept my Swingline stapler because it didn't bind up as much, and I kept the staples for the Sw

Sensationalist Headline

[iYk6]

Headline: Yelling At Telemarketers Leads To Arrest
Truth (allegations): ... allegedly told a sales representative ... that he would burn down the building and kill the employees and their families.

If you don't know the difference, then you too could be a Slashdot "editor."

Re:

[Aeternitas827]

Half an Hour? I give them ten minutes before I make sure my neighbours know I'm on the phone with the cable company. The wife gets on me about that, because it scares the hell out of our daughter... But I do the same damn thing for a living, and as much as I get yelled at, I want to do some yelling too. Perpetuate the hatred! (But srsly, no bomb/arson/death threats...just stick to calling them dipshits/fucktards/braindead idiots, and try to get them to swear back at you).

Re:

[BitZtream]

Who said it was a threat? I want the guy to follow through on it. Yelling at them does no good, I bet you'd see a different system after a few bombs went off however.

I feel no sympathy for any telemarketer, niether the employees or the company, useless fucks can get another job if they don't like it.

Re:

[rakslice]

Can you get another job when you're dead?

And the moral is..

[EasyTarget]

Think carefully about how you abuse telemarketers, making death or violence threats is a pretty shitty thing to do, especially if you are not psychotic and unlikely to follow-through. After all, that just makes YOU look silly, all mouth and no balls.

Instead: Insult them in ways that belittle their job and company, make it clear the total contempt you have for businesses that produce no meaningful products or income, and who's existence is parasitic off people who do the real work (ie, the people who they co

Best course of action to take

[SGDarkKnight]

I like to play games with the telemarketers. The most sucessful game i've played with them is the credit card game. I tell them that im very intrested and would like to make the purchase, i only ask them to hold on for a minute while i go get my wallet to get my credit card. Every couple of minutes i get back on the phone and say something along the lines of "my wife must have my wallet, one sec, i know its around here somewhere", etc... So far the longest time i've gotten has been 17 minutes before they hu

When I was younger

[omnichad]

I answered a phone call right before dinner. It went like this:

Caller: Can I speak to your father?
Me: No. (sounding like I'm about to cry) He just died a couple days ago...
Caller: Oh, I'm so sorry....
*pause*
Caller: So are you in charge of the phone bill now?