spiderjohn wrote: Obviously the call came from a traceable phone #

Did you knowthat some people can make any telephone number that they want show up on callerID???

It was anoff-shoot of skills used by early computer geeks back when long distance callswere still expensive, to beat the toll charges.  Once telephonecalls became so cheap that it wasn’t worth risking jail time and big fines justto save a few pennies, the scam nearly died out.

Recently,hackers revived variations of the “black art” to use during pranks, phone scams,and now “SWATTING”.  Part of the trickduring a “SWAT” is to keep the call too short to even allow a trace to start,yet make the message serious and desperate enough that it cannot be ignored.

Since I didintroduce this topic, perhaps I do owe the members some additional explanation.

At thebeginning, I didn’t take this seriously enough and joked about it, so let memake one thing perfectly clear:  Therewas absolutely NO ONE from City Hall behind any of this!!!  Any previous remarks hinting otherwise werestrictly attempts at humor.

This has nowgotten personal as there have been some additional incidents (but noneinvolving the Judge, nor anyone other than my wife and I), but so far, theyhave not resulted in any physical injury or property damage.

TheMiddletown Police have responded promptly, professionally, and admirably.

Appropriateactions have been (and are being) taken.