A CRUEL HOAX

Gisborne Times, Volume LXV, Issue 10302, 11 January 1927, Page 2

A CRUEL HOAX

UNDERTAKER. SENT TO SICK MAN’S HOME.

MEMBERS OF FAMILY SUFFER SEVERE SHUCK.

(Special to the Times.) AUCKLAND', Jan. 9. That perverted sense of humour and decency which finds malicious pleasure in inflicting needless pain or inconvenience on other people by means of bogus telephone messages has lately been operating at Devonport. Tradesmen have received orders which, when delivered, have been repudiated at the address given, and taxis have been sent careering round the countryside to unknown people at street numbers which do not exist. The unbalanced mischief maker achieved his masterpiece however, when he dispatched an undertaker from Auckland to the lioiiso of a wellknown resident of Stanley Bay, with instructions to urgently prepare for a funeral. It was pouring with rain but the telephonist was so insistent, that the journey was undertaken with all haste. When the undertaker arrived at the house ho announced to the lady who met him at the door, that “He had come to get ready for Mr. So and So’s funeral.” The gentleman in question was then absent from home, and was known to bo somewhat dangerously ill. The blunt directness of the announcement was a terrible shock to the lady and to members of the family, who, in the absence oi any other infoimation could not but believe the worst. Telegrams were at once dispatched, and inquiries from police headquarters soon revealed the falsity of the dire news, hut the unfortunate victims of this harebrained hoax have not lecovorod ■ from this anonymous “joke.” The telephone department maintain a listening-in service, and such malicious practices are the subject of police prosecution if tbo culprits are discovered.