How did you know I was here?

[snopes]

Comment: In 1992, the BBC broadcast a 'Weird Night' which was interspersed
with interviewees who related their 'weird' experiences.

One of these tales was from a man who claimed to have been walking through
Folkstone town (England) when the phone rang in a phonebooth he was
passing, or standing by. Uncharacteristically, he picked up the phone and
answered it. The call turned out to be his office. He asked them how
they knew he was in Folkstone High Street. They replied that they didn't.
They were calling his home number as recorded on the employee records. It
transpired that they had accidentally called his payroll number (or some
such number) rather than his home phone number, and this was remarkably
the number of the phone booth he was passing.

It struck me at the time that this was bang to rights as an urban myth
being repeated by an attention seeker. However, it's an infinite universe
and infinitely improbably things happen. Have you ever come across that
story as an urban myth?

I knew this sounded familiar…

Trollface started a thread on this legend in 2001. Back then I was using the name ‘Glengarry’, I was first to post on that thread and first to post on this. Coinki-dink? I think not.

The programme was called W.S.H. (Weird Sh*t Happens) and was aired in ’94.

HT

[AniMajor]

Once, in an airport, I was waiting for a connecting flight, when I heard one of the pay phones ring. I picked it up and said "hello", but there was no one on the other end. It was spooky.

Anyway, I've heard that most pay phones don't accept incoming calls. And I don't see why the company would have the number of a pay phone on file, unless one of their employees gave it to them, instead of a home phone number.

[snopes]

Originally Posted by AniMajor

Anyway, I've heard that most pay phones don't accept incoming calls. And I don't see why the company would have the number of a pay phone on file, unless one of their employees gave it to them, instead of a home phone number.

If you'd read the OP, you'd have noted:

a) The story was aired fifteen years ago and took place at some indefinite time before that (i.e., probably back when most pay phones still accepted incoming calls).

b) The company didn't have "the number of a pay phone on file"; they mistook some other type of number (e.g., payroll ID #) for a phone number.

- snopes

[imjustasteph]

I dunno about accidentally calling the right payphone, but my mom's phone number and PO box are the same, if you just drop the '0' that's in the middle of the number. My 2 grandmoms have phone #'s that differ by one digit. My first boyfriend's phone # was my grandmom's minus 2. One year when I was in elementary school and we had to memorixe 4 digit lunch numbers, mine was the same as my dad's phone #.

So coincidences happen, especially with numbers.

What's more, one of the series of 4 digits in my bank card (which has 4 series of 4 digits) is my mom's birthday. My birthday is Sept 11th, aka the emergency phone number. I turned 18 the day of the WTC thingy. My little brother was born on groundhogs' day the day after I was a groundhog in a school play (which would be less remarkable if that had been anywhere near his due date but he was rather early).

I could go on forever just listing the coincidences in the 'numbers' of my own family.

So, do I think that the pay phone coincidence is farfetched? Yep. Do I think it's possible? Absitively.