Police urge victims to report obscene calls

By Amanda Fletcher
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

A series of sexually explicit crank calls to the residence halls
has led housing officials to involve university police and
GTE/Verizon and Pacific Bell in an investigation.

Housing officials are advising students who receive crank calls
to file a police report and request a phone trap.

According to a resident assistant who requested anonymity for
fear of losing her job, the calls are made by a man and have
“mostly been heavy breathing or sexual in nature. The person
only calls females and hangs up if he hears a male
voice.”

Due to the unusually large number of obscene and harassing phone
calls received in the dorms, housing officials are now directing
students straight to police.

“We were taking incident reports for a while but now we
have them call the police directly because there’s not much
we can do,” said Suzanne Seplow, south area director for the
Office of Residential Life.

Though the pattern appears to be random, the total number of
calls students have received is significantly more than usual.

“My understanding is that at this point there is no
pattern,” Seplow said. “Somewhere on the hill
we’ll probably get at least one a night.”

After filing a police report students are advised to contact
their phone company to have a trap put on their telephone.

“The police can’t put a trap on a line, the student
has to do it,” Seplow said.

A trace, or trap, allows the phone company to trace a call and
retrieve the number and owner of the line making the call.

“Basically it tells you where the call is coming
from,” said Nancy Greenstein, director of police community
services.

Students are advised to get two traps, one with GTE/Verizon
““ the server used in the dorms ““ and one with Pacific
Bell.

These traps can be obtained through either company for 18 days
at no cost. Resetting the traps after that time period is over is
also free.

“With two traps there’s a chance for greater success
if the caller calls back again,” Seplow said.

When requesting a trap, students must provide the police report
number and name of the law enforcement agency with whom they file
the report. When the unwanted caller’s information is
received, the phone company will send it directly to the police,
according to representatives of Verizon’s security services
department.

Because the word of phone traps is just now beginning to reach
students, police are still waiting for repeat calls to trace the
source.

According to Greenstein, crank calls aren’t unusual but
most are made during summer months when the dorms house several
conference groups.

“When the groups leave, the calls usually stop,”
Greenstein said.

Students wishing to put a trap on their phone should call the
Verizon Nuisance Call Bureau at 1-800-257-2969, Monday through
Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.