A shrill whistle will hurt an obscene caller

[Skeptic]

Is there any truth in the old idea that blowing a shrill whistle will hurt an obscene caller through the telephone. I read it again tonight in a novel, but I thought that modern phones had some sort of system that limited the pitch that can be heard.

[Cervus]

I don't think it's so much as hurting their ears as just making an annoying sound as a deterrent. A dial-up modem or fax machine would be just as annoying as a whistle - at least for me.

When my wife & her sister were getting calls from some idiot, the only thing that stopped them was me coming over and answering the phone in the most "tough" voice I could come up with. He hung up right away and they never heard from him again.

Funny side note, this was well before we were married, so I was still just a boyfriend. The guy would call late at night, so I slept on the couch. Wouldn't you know it, but my Mom called my apartment and my roommate said I was sleeping over at my (then) girlfriend's house. So she called my GF's house to talk to me.

I never told her there was no "monkey business" going on that night.

[Bee]

Sorry to further the hijack, but side note to Doug: Lately I've been reminiscing with Mom and telling her about all those stories where I really *wasn't* doing whatever they thought I was doing. It's been amusing. I've also been asking about some of those parental desicions that seemed unfair at the time (and still do). They find this amusing because the events I remember are ones that barely register in Mom & Dad's memories, but they have other times they thought they made questionable parenting decisions that I don't even remember. It's entertaining and makes me feel a lot more relaxed about being a parent one day.

Bee

[diddy]

I would think that an obscene caller wouldn't be affected by a whistle (except a wolf whistle) any more than any other. That being said, if I heard a shrill whistle on the phone, I would get pissed at the other person and want to do much worse.

* disclaimer. Diddy does not make obscene phone calls unless the other person (female) want's one and is willing to pay for long distance...

[zman977]

Blowing a loud musical instrument like a tuba or some other kind of horn in to the phone might work. It might take a time or two of repeating this but the creep might get the hint.