True story:

When we moved into our house, we were assigned a phone number that was previously used by a Mexican family. They had extremely poor credit and we received collection calls practically every day. After about two weeks, I contacted the phone company to get a new number. Wouldn't you know it...new number, same scenario, different Mexican family. We got calls from collection agencies, an automated computerized message stating that their child was not in school (this happened a lot), miscellaneous Mexican people, (many of them did not speak English, and I don't speak Spanish, so who knows who they were. I am guessing family and friends). Most of the collection calls were polite, I am sure that they realized that we were not who they were calling for, but some people were very rude. I contacted the phone company again about a month after we got the second phone number to explain the situation, and they told me that I would have to pay for a new number if I wanted it changed because it had already been changed once before. What an outrage! I am the victim, and I have to pay? If I thought that I could have gotten a decent number, I would have changed it. Keep in mind that I was not living in an area with a lot of Mexicans, so I found it very frustrating, and this was way before I even knew anything about illegal immigration, so there was no bias involved in this incident. The rudest phone call that I received, was from Ms Zepeda, herself (about a year after we had the phone number), the previous owner of our new phone number. Let's just say that she was very convinced that we had "stolen" her phone number while she was out of the country. According to her, we had no right taking what was hers, and she wanted it back (phone Aztlan? LOL!). It was difficult, but I tried to remain calm and explained to her that if she leaves the country and does not pay her bill, that her phone number will be reassigned. I assured her that I did not "steal" her number and that it was now my number, given to me by the phone company. You would think that would have been the end of it but she called back one more time (?) We kept the number and dealt with her "friends" for the next ten years, until we moved. Of course the calls dwindled, but I was still surprised that it went on for so long. I believe that even after she understood that she wasn't getting her phone number back, she continued to give the number to her creditors. Ridiculous? I think so.