I got a call from an unknown number the other day. Since I was trying to navigate my way out of a parking garage at the moment, I let it go to voicemail. When I had a chance to listen, I had a voicemail all in Spanish. I couldn’t make heads or tails of most of it; the only words I understood were, “Mauriiiiiicio!” and “byyyye!” at the end.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with getting a wrong number. However, it seems to me that my voicemail message should have made it pretty clear that I was not, in fact, Mauricio. It’s pretty definitely in English. Anyway, I scratched my head a little bit and deleted the message.

A few days later, I received another call. I recognized the area code (I don’t get a lot of calls from California), so I dumped it to voicemail thinking, “Okay, when he hears my voicemail again he’ll have to realize I’m not Mauricio.” No such luck. He didn’t leave a message, but instead immediately called back.

I was just staring down at my phone. “You have to answer it, or he’ll just keep calling,” said Sara. “Hello?” I said. “Mauricioooo,” said a voice that will haunt my dreams. “Mauriiiiiciooooo!” “Uh..I think you have the wrong number,” I brilliantly replied.

The next day he called again. “Mauricio?” This time I was more prepared (and a bit more annoyed). “You have the wrong number. There is no Mauricio at this number.” The man was quiet for a bit. “No Mauricio?” he asked. “Nope!” I crowed. He chuckled. “Then this is the 4th time I’ve tried this number!”

Yeah, no kidding.

Before he got off the phone I made him give me the number he was trying to call. Sure enough, his area code was off by one number. Now let me ask you; after you’ve not gotten through to old Mauricio the first 3 times, why not just double check the number? You know, see if maybe you typed it in wrong.

It certainly seems more plausible than Mauricio having someone else record his voicemail message in English.