One time the most disturbing thing happened:

[Bouncy Ball]

we were getting ready to go on a camping trip and my husband got out the shortwave radio. Or it was a two-way radio. Not sure. Such things elude me from time to time.

Anyway, he turned it on, set it on the bar in the kitchen and was listening to something. Oh wait! It had a scanner on it, so it must have been a radio of some kind....???

Whatever. Technogeeks will know what I'm talking about. Soon I heard two women talking. Fascinating! What was this?

They were going on and on and saying all kinds of horribly racist things (I won't even put them in print here, they were so bad).

I was disgustipated. What the FUCK was this? I kept trying to see what band or channel or what the hell ever it was on for the longest time.

Finally my husband came back in the kitchen and said "What the HELL is that?" and I said "Exactly, I can't figure it out."

He said "Hey one of those voices sounds familiar." I asked him which one (they didn't to me, but then I'm not good with recognizing voices at ALL).

Then it dawned on him: one of the women was our NEXT DOOR NEIGHBOR! She was on the PHONE!!! Sure enough, the other woman called her by her first name and we knew it.

I turned it off. I didn't want to hear anymore, especially now that I knew who it was. I was sick to my stomach. That's when our friendship started to fall apart, long before the election. Gawd. I couldn't believe she could even say such things. It was like a fucking KKK rally. I never saw her in the same light again and I almost wished I had never heard all that.

[Doctor_J]

1. I have heard that cordless phones

can be heard on baby monitors and such things. Too bad you had to find out that your neighbor is a sicko.

[Bouncy Ball]

6. Yep. That was the beginning of the end.

Well, that and the evening shortly after that when she said attacking Iraq was good because it made her "feel better" about 9/11, even though she admitted the Iraqis had nothing to do with that.

:puke:

[Bunny]

23. Yep - that's true.

I was in bed one night, and started hearing voices coming through the baby monitor. It was definitely a phone call involving someone in my neighborhood. Their conversation went on for several minutes, but it was amazingly dull.

[benburch]

2. Racism is one of the ugliest things there is.

And it hides so well.

[Bouncy Ball]

3. You said it.

I've never been so horrified as to hear such ugly things come out of the mouths of people who can SEEM so nice.

[last_texas_dem]

4. Crazy

It's amazing sometimes how different the way you perceive someone can be from how they really are. Especially how they are when they don't think anyone else (or at least hardly anyone else) is listening. I'm often shocked to find out that people I hold in fairly high esteem or at least thought better of hold pretty nasty racist views. It's saddening and, like you mentioned, really does permanently change how you think about them.

Although I will admit I might get a cheap thrill upon first realizing I was hearing a phone conversation I wasn't supposed to hear, especially finding out I knew the person who was talking. Maybe I'm just immature, but I believe that's something it's hard to really grow out of; I kinda think it's just human nature. Though if what the people were saying was disgusting enough I'd probably be tempted to tune out as well.

[Bouncy Ball]

7. I couldn't turn it off fast enough once I knew it was her.

My stomach actually hurt and I couldn't sleep that night. To think I had trusted her to watch my child once or twice. Never again.

[jojo54]

5. Ever hear of "guilt by association"?

It's a good thing you found out about your neighbor when you did. I wouldn't want to be known as friendly to those kind of people either. Hooray to you for taking a stand and leaving her to her own pitiful, pathetic self.

[RevCheesehead]

8. It's amazing how many people own scanners.

In one of my churches, lots of the old people had them, because they wanted to know what was going on. I was in a conversation with one of our members, and went off on a diatribe about some church stuff. He told me, "you need to be careful if you're on a cordless phone. These people listen in on these conversations." I very quickly replied, "Well, if any of you are listening, GOD knows you're eavesdropping, and you're all going to HELL!"

[Bouncy Ball]

9. Tee hee.

I really hate eavesdropping too, but I was so damn clueless about that radio and I didn't know we could be picking up a phone conversation until a couple of minutes of me cocking my head and thinking "WHAT is this shit???"

Now I know!

[RevCheesehead]

11. just to clarify:

The old farts at this church were super-sanctimonious. I thought I might as well put the fear of God in them.

Accidental eavesdropping is not a sin. Anyone who dines alone at a restaurant can tell you that!

[Bouncy Ball]

13. True. And I did turn it off as SOON as I knew who it was.

I remember just gasping really loudly as soon as we knew and turning the knob to off. Ug.

[RevCheesehead]

15. Unclean! Unclean!

Go do an earwax removal ritual, swabbing gently with Q-tips, then show yourself to the priest. Oh, wait - that's me! :evilgrin:

Your sins are forgiven. Nanu-nanu.

[Blue Diadem]

10. Scanners aren't supposed to pick up those frequencies since it is

illegal to listen to phone calls, but some people do alter scanners to do so.

[Bouncy Ball]

12. Well

there's no way we have an altered scanner. My husband does know a bit more about scanners or whatever it was than I do (such as how to operate it!) but he wouldn't know the first thing about altering one to catch cordless phone conversations, nor would he care to. He feels the same way I do about that--invasion of privacy. I felt bad (and sickened) by even hearing what I heard of hers, though I didn't know who I was listening to.

[Blue Diadem]

17. I'm thinking it was probably a short wave not unless it's a pre-

93 scanner. I worked at a place that sold them and prior years had some issues with overhearing cordless phone conversations, created quite a legal problem.

We had tons of people asking how to modify them. I'm not saying you did, I was only saying what I was told about the law and modifications.

[hickman1937]

14. I'm going to try to clean the schnapps out of my keyboard,

But if I can't, you owe me. Oh God, the spit take got the monitor too!

[RevCheesehead]

16. That's what the sponge is for, man.

Ha! Made you spit! Made you spit! :evilgrin:

[hickman1937]

18. You dirty dog!

You did that on purpose.

[RevCheesehead]

20. Nope. Cat person here.

Although my little guy THINKS he's a dog - he's got that cool attitude.

Hey, the way I figured is, if I have to carry the baggage of being a pastor, I might as well have some fun with it, too. O8)

[hickman1937]

21. Ya, so am I.

Good night Rev.

[solinvictus]

19. I've heard..

half of a drug deal on a wireless phone.

[enigmatic]

22. I've heard alot of that kind of stuff on scanners..

I'm a big scanner listener (Bearcat and Realistic scanners), and the cordless phone and cell phone conversations I've stumbled across when I've had them on have been some crazy, crazy stuff. And heartbreaking stuff, too..