Residents receive threatening phone calls

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Judy Haselden was enjoying a nice lunch last week at D&H Barbecue when her cell phone began ringing. She answered the call as she would any other. “There was a young guy on the phone, and he was just screaming and hollering,” she said. The caller, she said, accused Haselden of hitting his vehicle and causing damages. “He was screaming, ‘You hit my car, you tore up my taillight and messed up my fender, and you left this number under the windshield wiper,’” Haselden said. “After I calmed down a minute, I told him that, no, I hadn’t hit anyone’s car.” The caller was not subdued, however. “He kept hollering, saying that I was going to have to pay for it,” Haselden said. “He and I had some words, let me tell you, and I hung up on him.” Haselden then notified authorities, who told her that other residents had begun getting a string of similar calls. Sheriff Randy Garrett was not aware of this new take on phone scams, but said that residents should never give out any personal or financial information over the phone. “If you’ve hit someone’s car, or someone has hit someone’s car in your car, insurance will be involved,” he said. “And if they’re not, then law firms will be involved. Someone wouldn’t just usually call you out of the blue like that.” Haselden is adamant that she had hit no one. But the next day, she received another call. “This sounded like a different guy, but still young,” she said. “He said that he’d seen me in town, and that he had my license tag number. He said, ‘You’re going to pay for the things you did.’” “He said that he’d seen the way I drive, and that I was in town that day, and I wasn’t in town that day,” Haselden said. “I got kind of rude with him, and that’s what he didn’t want. He told me I was an idiot and that he didn’t know how I got a driver’s license. He just kept yelling that I was going to pay for the things I did. I hadn’t done anything.” Haselden said after her calls, she heard from friends who were getting similar threats. “There are people out there, elderly people that would be scared easily,” she said. “They might would give them money to try and have them leave them alone. So, I wanted to warn people.” “It’s an awful thing they’re doing to people, but they’re not going to run over me,” Haselden said.