Prank Calls Made to Candidates throughout Oakland County
(Crystal A. Proxmire, Oct. 15, 2018)
Oakland County, MI – Several elected officials and candidates received prank calls on Sunday.
The calls showed up on caller IDs as coming from different, but legitimate places, including the Fox 2 Newsroom and FedEx.
The caller did not discriminate between Republicans or Democrats.
Republican State Representative Kathy Crawford of Novi said the call showed up as if it was from FedEx. “The person on the line said they delivered our package to the wrong place and we would have to go get it. It was under a bush. It became obvious that the call was a prank,” Crawford said. “Hopefully, no one took them serious. I actually laughed..thinking, at first, it could be our Grandson. Hardly anyone has a land line anymore and this call was on ours. The only calls we get on that line are fundraising, someone trying to sell us a product, scams and other misc, nothing real.”
Democrat Michelle Bryant of Lake Orion is running for County Commissioner in District 2 received a call from someone claiming to be from her opponent’s campaign. “The man I spoke with stated that they were flying over my house in a helicopter using infrared cameras and wanted to know when I might be home because they weren’t showing any activity at my house,” Bryant posted on Facebook.
Another helicopter-themed call went to Farmington City Councilperson Bill Galvin, who is currently running for County Commission. The call was labeled as coming from Fox 2 and the man identified himself as “Roy, the co-pilot of the Fox 2 helicopter.” There was even helicopter sound effects in the background. The man told Galvin that he was hovering over his home projecting microwaves into the home so he could eavesdrop on electronic communications.”
“The non-candidate part of me wanted to keep the conversation going and have fun with it, but I did the prudent thing and hung up,” Galvin said. “I joked with my wife later that we should wrap the house in tinfoil. It was all a good laugh. Hardy har har.”
Several other political candidates received strange calls as well, but did not share details. Oakland County Sheriff’s Department stated that no complaints have been made to them about the calls. Prank calls are illegal under Michigan Law.