Now I Feel Guilty
By carolbee
@carolbee (16230)
United States
October 20, 2008 11:05am CST
When I'm not involved with television I like to listen to my scanner. For some unknown reason the scanner picked up a telephone conversation between a woman and her husband. Believe it was a land line conversation. I had to listen, ya know! She was discussing lunch and dinner so it wasn't anything hot and spicy. I feel so guilty now for continuing to listen. Has anything like this ever happened to you where you accidently overheard something you didn't intentionally want to hear?
4 people like this
16 responses
@howard96h (11640)
• New York, New York
20 Oct 08
Home cordless phones work on different frequencies and if someone is using one of the older model cordless phones which doesn't have the best security features many times their calls can be picked up on a scanner, if you recall which station/frequency you were listening to on your scanner you might pick up on their calls again, this person probably lives very close to you. Sounds like the "tamale lady" is one of your neighbors.
3 people like this
@carolbee (16230)
• United States
20 Oct 08
You are probably right, Howard. I didn't recognize either voice so don't think it was an immediate neighbor. I guess the frequencies were crossed somewhere along the time. I'd hate to think I can listen to everyone's cordless conversations. Thanks for responding.
2 people like this
@Chevee (5905)
• United States
20 Oct 08
My experience was just the opposite. My cousin and I was on the phone talking and some guy had been listening on another line, how it got crossed up that way we do not know all of sudden he join in the conversation. We didn't mind we were not talking about anything important. My cousin's husband over heard the phone conversation from a cross the room and asked her who was she talking too. She told him she was talking to me he said it doesn't sound like you are talking to a female.
You have to be very careful talking on the phones, lines get crossed up sometimes.
2 people like this
@jillhill (37354)
• United States
20 Oct 08
Nope.....but I have been on the other end. My neighbor listened to several conversations I had with someone I was dating a while back (also on his scanner)....he repeated everything to all the neighbors and embellished what was said.....so....I was not happy. Come to find out that it's against the law for him to do that and I could have pressed charges in our state.....it's called eaves dropping....and it's breaking the privacy law we have here....I was not happy!
2 people like this
@carolbee (16230)
• United States
21 Oct 08
That goes beyond breaking the law. That's vicious. I don't know who these people were and it was an accident the scanner just happened to pick it up. I have all the local police departments plugged in so I can hear what's happening. If I had done this on purpose, that wouldn't have been a good thing. Thanks for responding.
1 person likes this
@mariposaman (2959)
• Canada
21 Oct 08
It depends what country or state you live whether there is a law against eavsdropping. Guess what, the US and other governments routinely spy on cell phone traffic, and guess what, those long distance calls go by satellite now so they monitor those. Usually it is not so much against the law to listen but is usually against the law to record or repeat or use the conversations as there is a reasonable expectation of privacy.
@sid556 (30960)
• United States
21 Oct 08
Actually, years ago, my oldest daughter and her friend were planning to skip school. Her friend was at her aunts and my daughter was at my mom's when they called each other. Her friends dad picked up the conversation on his scanner. He recognized the voics and gave me and the girls mom a call. It was pretty funny because they did not figure out how in heck we caught them. I told them that I have Psychic visions. her friend believed it....my daughter was not sure what happened but she did know better.
2 people like this
@sid556 (30960)
• United States
21 Oct 08
Ya, I did tell her but it was long after she was out of highschool. It bugged her the whole time. She did know that there had to be more to it than my being psychic but it was all pretty bizzare considering that this girls mom and I lived in different towns than where the girls were that night and the girls dad who heard the conversation had very limited contact with his daughter. he recorded the conversation and no names were mentioned at all. At one point in the conversation, the other girl dropped the vacuum cleaner and cussed and so I used that as more proof..."I saw you cleaning as yu plotted". She was more than convinced. My daughter knew me and never bought into it.
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
20 Oct 08
Yes, I had an ex-boyfriend. We heard two people talking about us. A Mother and a Daughter. They weren't saying anything very nice either. So he called them and said, "Did you know my scanner can pick up your cell phone? By the way, my girlfriend isn't a B---- and I'm not a B------." Then he hung up.
@carolbee (16230)
• United States
21 Oct 08
Good for your ex-boyfriend. That was a good way to handle it. This conversation was about tamales and dinner. Just an accident the scanner picked it up. I don't know how to program it to pick up conversations. That was never my intent. Thanks for responding.
1 person likes this
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
21 Oct 08
He was a firemen, scanner never picked up anything before and never anything since outside the fire calls. We don't even know why it did it that day. Surprised they didn't call the police and say we were listening in on them or somethng, but never heard it before or since. I was there a lot for an entire year. Maybe they were walking around outdoors at their houses or something.
Just like a CB from a trucker came over our TV one day. Never before and hasn't happened since. The guy was calling to say the roadblock and construction made him late, the load of sand, he hadn't picked it up yet. We live next to a sand pit.
@Opal26 (17679)
• United States
21 Oct 08
Hey carolbee! Yes, my phone used to get crossed lines and
I know people heard my conversations too! I was able to
hear some phone conversations sometimes, but most of the
time they were in Spanish! So I had no idea what they
were talking about!lol So it wasn't much fun to listen!
It doesn't happen anymore since I switched to digital
cable. It was when I had AT&T. The had lousy service and
the landline phones would pick up alot of crossed lines
and it really was annoying. So if I could hear other
peoples conversations I know they could here mine. So I'm
glad to be rid of them!
@rowantree (1186)
• United States
21 Oct 08
I've heard ringing and someone saying hello over my phone before. I've heard a woman having a conversation over my baby monitor too. Nothing juicy, like the stuff movies are made of though.
Don't feel guilty. It happens to everyone.
1 person likes this
@carolbee (16230)
• United States
22 Oct 08
I've heard of this happening with a baby monitor. That would be interesting but at the same time if you were in a different part of the house, could you hear what was said? Could be spooky thinking there was someone in the room with the baby if you heard voices. Thanks for responding.
@tyc415 (5706)
• United States
20 Oct 08
We used to have a scanner when my husband was on the sheriff's department. I have also overheard conversations on accident. I would think they are from cell phone or cordless phones. I have also heard things over a headset when working and had a hand held walkie talkie type radio to talk to the guys/gals down on the race track.
2 people like this
@kenzie45230 (3560)
• United States
21 Oct 08
My mother always listened to a police scanner. I remember when I was in high school (the dinosaur days), there were some new fangled car phones - bulky and they weren't portable. The only people who had them were...well, pretty unsavory characters. Sure enough, my mother found out she could listen in...and she did. She thought it was quite funny that this one dude used to call his wife to say he'd be late for dinner because he had to work and the next call he made was to his mistress.
1 person likes this
@tamarafireheart (15384)
•
20 Oct 08
Hi carolbee,
That is strange, I have never heard of it, one of these days you will hear a juicy gossip wait and see, hehe, it doesen't happen on my landline or I be listening to it all the time. Hugs.
Tamara
2 people like this
@floridachick (603)
• United States
20 Oct 08
well sometimes the baby monitor would pick up weird things, it was never a full conversation or anything. I also can read lips and I used to see if i could tell someones conversation from across the room, I'd usually get every other word.
2 people like this
@LouiseKnittel (4764)
• United States
20 Oct 08
I am not sure what to say here.. Part of me is a curious type that might like to listen.. part of me is like oh no,, I can hear them I should hang up....
I guess it would not be so bad if you were able to listen and heard something "Shady" and was able to save someones life!
2 people like this
@carolbee (16230)
• United States
20 Oct 08
I can't hang up on a scanner but could have disconnected it. You have a valid idea there if I heard a life threatening situation I could spread the word. Just don't know where the call was coming from or where it was going. Think it was a freak accident that my scanner connected to it. Thanks for responding.
2 people like this
@DarthJustice (2014)
• United States
21 Oct 08
That's never happened to me on either end. I've never had my calls picked up (...at least as far as I know!) and I've never picked up any phone calls of others my police scanner either. Though of course I don't have it on very much either. I wonder if I'll ever pick up a phone on it?
1 person likes this
@lola1986 (7)
• China
21 Oct 08
yeah,i have experience some things like that.i cannt remmember when now.it happened in my dorm with three other girls.at that time i was laying in bed,silent,all of them thought i had gone asleep,so they began to talk about me,but i was not!!~~~~~GOD!!!u know what did it feel???so i heard everything they said about me,but i couldnt speak out......now it has passed for so long a time,i just keep it secret,who i can tell.so just let it go.and sometimes i pick up some news about someone i dont know.anyway it does no harm,right??we wont do anything wrong to these actors,so forget it,just like it never happen!!!
@cristis12 (125)
• United States
21 Oct 08
Yes it happend to me I am pretty sure it happens to us all once in our lives.. I dont feel bad because its not our fault what I do feel bad about and you should to not trying to make you feel worse but We and everyone that has been through that should have hung up the phone instead of listening in we already have to deal with the goverment listening in on normal convos we have we dont need anymore regular people doing that you know but I feel yah !!!!
