I mean...a lot of the (legit scary, not saying they aren't) episodes reported above would not have been prevented by having a cell phone.

My brother worked in a storeback in the 1980s, when there was a spate of robberies/murders where the perpetrators would usher the store personnel into the back and execute them before taking off with the money. He was closing up the store and the only worker there when a guy came in with a gun and ushered him to the back. Luckily, the back door was right there, so he pushed it open and ran.

Dead car, very bad neighborhood. I literally saw someone get shot, then the car died a block later.

I Used a pay phone to call my sister for a pick up, and waited an hour in a parking lot with a couple of crackheads. I bought a lady cough drops from the corner store. When my ride arrived an hour later, an ambulance arrived for the poor guy who had been shot.

I was 16.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here. Thanks Pps for sharing your experiences!

Funnily, I remember having a Nokia or was it a Samsung flip on 9/11. I didn’t realize how uncommon they were.

cell phones weren't uncommon in 2001 in DC. I remember our building being evacuated on 9/11 and everyone was trying to call on their phones so it was super hard to get a call through that morning.

My mom worked a few blocks from the WH on 9/11. She was stuck in DC until evening and her cell phone wasn't working. I was in 8th grade and sat at home alone thinking she was dead until she finally got home that night.

That is awful. Terrifying.

I drove half way across country by myself with no cell phone.

When I was 22, I lived in Oakland. I was at a club in SF with my friends one weekend and I missed the last train across the Bay. No cell phone. No credit card or ATM card - just BART pass and like $10 cash leftover from the evening. Friends lived elsewhere and had gone home, and I was stuck in downtown SF alone.

Everyone I met downtown (read: all homeless people, many clearly on drugs) was actually really nice to me. I was scared but did not actually feel unsafe at any point, if that makes sense. I just kind of did not know what to do and had no way, short of calling my mom (in the midwest) collect.

Eventually, I just started walking. It took me almost 2 hours, but I finally managed to walk up to my one friend who lived in SF's apartment in the Haight. By then it was close to 5am, and he basically made me tea and poured me into bed.

Anonymous wrote:I had a stalker in college that called my dorm room everyday. He would describe what I was wearing that day and proceed to talk to me sexually. I had to unplug my phone b/c he would keep calling back. It was terrifying to realize this person saw me everyday but I didn't know him. Campus police couldn't do anything b/c he had not physically harmed me.

Wow, for a split second I thought I wrote this. I also had a stalker in college—would call the second I got to my dorm room, throughout the day, late at night. It was horrible—I couldn’t sleep, didn’t know whom I could trust on campus. Eventually he called from an outside line instead of internally, and campus police caught him that way through a number trace.
The Dean of Students allowed him to write an apology letter as punishment. Which he did, in crayon, and taped it to my dorm room door. Campus police flipped out that she let him do that.
He was asked to leave for the remainder of that semester but then allowed to come back because he was “remorseful”.
I was 20 and didn’t know enough to complain/escalate about her handling.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had a stalker in college that called my dorm room everyday. He would describe what I was wearing that day and proceed to talk to me sexually. I had to unplug my phone b/c he would keep calling back. It was terrifying to realize this person saw me everyday but I didn't know him. Campus police couldn't do anything b/c he had not physically harmed me.

Did you ever find out who it was?

Did not find out the exact person but they were able to trace calls back to a dorm that I walked past on my way to/from classes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here. Thanks Pps for sharing your experiences!

Funnily, I remember having a Nokia or was it a Samsung flip on 9/11. I didn’t realize how uncommon they were.

cell phones weren't uncommon in 2001 in DC. I remember our building being evacuated on 9/11 and everyone was trying to call on their phones so it was super hard to get a call through that morning.

My mom worked a few blocks from the WH on 9/11. She was stuck in DC until evening and her cell phone wasn't working. I was in 8th grade and sat at home alone thinking she was dead until she finally got home that night.

Anonymous wrote:Op here. Thanks Pps for sharing your experiences!

Funnily, I remember having a Nokia or was it a Samsung flip on 9/11. I didn’t realize how uncommon they were.

cell phones weren't uncommon in 2001 in DC. I remember our building being evacuated on 9/11 and everyone was trying to call on their phones so it was super hard to get a call through that morning.