Just after 9pm at work, I got a phone call from someone who had a rather heavy (almost stereotypical) accent from somewhere in South Asia (India, Pakistan, Nepal, etc.). Think Apu from “The Simpsons.” (I had a roommate senior year in college who frequently watched the show on DVD, along with those bastions of godliness “Family Guy” and “Futurama.”) He was extremely rude, and interrupted me a lot. He had said that his wife came in earlier and had asked “Chris, the white guy with glasses” to help find his pictures, but apparently I couldn’t find them.
I didn’t remember the incident (Hanbat I think was the name), and searching while the guy was on the phone, I couldn’t find them–again, apparently. He was quite upset, twisted me around to the point where he insinuated that I insulted his wife, and assured me he would come in “in the next 35 to 45 minutes” with his wife to set me straight, reminding me that “in my country, I would cut your head off!” He made me promise that when he arrived, I wouldn’t “hide behind the machines or hide behind the counter.” Then, in an almost-perfect imitation of Apu , he said “Have a good day!” and hung up.
Needless to say, no one ever showed up. Although for the rest of the night, I would about every 15-20 seconds look up from what I was doing to make sure no irate Hindus or Muslims were stomping their way into the lab.
So, who could be behind such treachery? I couldn’t quite pick up who it was, but I have a few ideas.
- My pastor likes playing pranks. He’s freely admited to toying with the computers of a few worshippers at our church to make strange noising, such as farting. He has thus annoyed colonels in high-level government strategic meetings and so forth.
- I could imagine two of my managers doing this. The one problem? We had inventory today, when we get checked for how well we keep the store free from stolen merchandise and so forth. At least one of them was dead tired from inventory (was swaying back and forth at one point), and the other was busy pulling freight from the truck onto the floor.
- I ran into one of the guys from electronics, the department right next to me, about 5 to 10 minutes later. He could barely control his laughter from some reason. However, he has a thick accent from Ghana, and I doubt would be able to pull off the accent on the phone.
- Possibly one of my friends from college. I can think of a couple who might be willing and able to do this.
- Another pair of guys I know from church, two brothers about my age. I wouldn’t put it past them.
