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Dude, Change Your Number: Guy Says Woman Called Him 65,000 Times

Edward J Bock III
/
iStockphoto.com

We had some questions after reading this, and unfortunately none have been answered in any of the stories so far:

"Dutch prosecutors are charging a 42-year-old woman with stalking after she allegedly called her ex-boyfriend 65,000 times in the past year." (The Associated Press)

First: Didn't the "ex-boyfriend," who's 62, change his number after, say, call No. 10,000 or so?

Second: She couldn't have actually had a phone to her ear every time, could she?

Let's assume she sleeps six hours a night (this doesn't sound like someone who gets a full eight hours in). That leaves 6,570 hours of awake time over the past year. So, she'd have to make about 10 calls an hour on average. A computer or some device doing some redialing must have been involved.

And there is a hint about that in the AP story: "Police arrested the suspected stalker Monday, seizing several cell phones and computers from her home in Rotterdam."

Third: He waits a year to file a complaint. What's up with that?

Fourth: "The man denied they had a relationship," says AP. Seems like they certainly knew each other, though.

Finally: The court has "ordered her not to contact him again," the AP says. Do we really think that's going to happen?

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.
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