"Mama, Please Answer. I'm Using A Construction Worker’s Phone..." — 13 Times People Felt Sheer Terror Listening To One Simple Voicemail That Changed Everything

Warning: This post contains topics of abuse.

We've all been in situations where we can't get to our phone — or purposefully let it go to voicemail. Here are 13 times the people from Quora received messages they never expected...

1."I am a police officer’s wife. I do not dwell on what COULD happen to him, but I KNOW. One time, my phone rang, but since it was an unknown number, I let it go to voicemail. I began shaking when I listened to it, and frantic fear tears filled my eyes. The voicemail said, 'Wife of police officer XXXX, there has been an accident. Call back immediately.' An ambulance siren sounded in the background of the voicemail. I could barely hold my phone; I was trembling. When I called back, a man answered and identified me and my husband by name, using a serious, commanding tone. I asked what had happened. There was the longest moment of silence I have ever experienced. The siren sound stopped, and the man said, 'Everything is fine, but it might not be in the future. You need more protection….more insurance in case something bad really DOES happen.' This was a sales pitch?! I wanted to scream, rant, cry with relief, and hurt this caller, but I didn’t."

2."Hey guys, it's Heather. I'm running a bit late, but I should be there in a…..' There was absolute silence in the room. Message received: Sept. 3 at 11:55 a.m. Not a word was spoken among the three of us listening to the message, and none of us could muster anything useful to say afterward other than a very weak, 'Save that message.' Her car had been T-boned by a large truck, and she had been killed instantly."

3."'Hi, Mom. Dad's dead. Love you. Bye.' That was the message my 14-year-old son left on my machine. His father had overdosed sometime in the night. My son woke up to him dead in his recliner. I was 1,000 miles away in Colorado. I threw some clothes in the truck, and my husband and I took off for Houston. We drove nonstop all night. I didn't know where my son lived because my ex had hidden him from me for 10 years. His death was the beginning of a new life for my son. He grew and blossomed in Colorado. No one missed my abusive, drug-addicted ex."

4."It was my alcoholic 71-year-old younger brother. He’d wrestled with alcoholism his whole adult life. Binges. Rehab. Relapses. Rinse and repeat. My wife and I were pretty much the last friends. He called one night and asked if I was there on the voicemail. I didn’t pick up because he was obviously drunk, and I didn’t feel like dealing with his issues. I had previously cleaned his apartment while he was in rehab, and it had been like a crime scene hazmat operation. I told him that was a once-in-a-lifetime deal, but I didn’t want him to lose the place and wind up on the street again. Then, in the middle of the night, I got a call from the hospital. It had rained, and he slipped and fell, hitting his head on the curb. He laid there for hours before some passer-by called the cops. By then the swelling had basically strangled his brain. Would picking up the phone have saved his life? Maybe, maybe not. I’ll never know, and no one else will either."

5."My ex-boyfriend left one on my phone one time. He called me a 'dirty effing whore' and loads of other insults. I recognized the background noise and knew where he was. I walked into the bar in question. Pressed play on the voicemail, put the phone on speaker, and let the whole room listen. I didn't get another voicemail ever."

6."My mother-in-law was in assisted living, and her mind was deteriorating. This poor woman thought she was living at her college dorm and couldn’t understand why her parents and brothers no longer visited her. Every time she was told that her parents were deceased, she would grieve their loss all over again, then forget about their deaths the next time she thought she was abandoned at the dorm. After several escape attempts, she was transferred to a nursing home. Shortly after, COVID hit, and the nursing homes went on lockdown. There she sat, staring off into oblivion with no awareness of the family that so loved her. Just days before her death, she had a period of lucidity and left a message on my husband’s voicemail saying, 'Don’t worry about me; I’m not lonely anymore. I’m with Dad. We’re back together again.' That was the last message we ever heard from her, and she died shortly after."

7."'This is your last night, bitch.' This was the last of many messages my stalker left that day. I was living a nightmare of being stalked by a man I went out with for a little while and broke up with. He was obsessed with me and didn’t take it well when I ended things. In these few months of being stalked, I already had restraining, no-contact, and no-trespassing orders against him. The police had been to my house many times and knew about the situation. They could not catch him because he had no address or regular job; he would appear and then disappear. He had killed my dog, ruined my car by putting sugar in the gas tank, poured concrete down my drain, slashed the tires of my and my kids' bikes, and many other things. Thankfully, my kids were with their father that evening. A brave friend came home with me. I was afraid this time he’d try to burn the house down, kill my cat, or do something just as bad..."

8."My 13-year-old daughter on a normal school day, around 11 a.m., left me this voicemail while I was at work: 'Mama, please answer. I'm using a construction worker’s phone, and he needs it back soon. I need you to pick me up. I'm a block away from school, and my nose won't stop bleeding. Please, please, please call this number back...'"

9."'Ray, I can’t remember which hotel we booked in Prague. But I know you have it under control. What time are you coming to pick me up?' It was my boss, André. There had been many calls like this over the 15 years we managed events together. But, this time André was close to death after a six-year battle with cancer. In a morphine-enabled temporary state of hallucination, he picked up his phone, called me, and left that message. His funeral was six weeks later. Ten years later, I still have that message on my phone to remind me of what’s important in life."

10."I have a message on my phone that I never deleted from my daughter, who was accidentally killed by a bus just before the bus hit her. She just called to say hello. At first, it made me sad and depressed to hear her voice after her death. Some people told me to delete it and move on, but I wanted to remember her voice after her death. In time, it did not make me sad to listen to it. Instead, it made me feel happy. A voice has more realness than a picture. It made me feel like she was still alive."

11.“'Hello, this is XYZ funeral home. Your stepfather has a pre-need contract, so we’ll start on the arrangements.' No one had even called me to tell me he’d passed yet."

12."A man left a message on my voicemail claiming that I had stolen his wife years ago. He threatened my life in the message. I called him back and tried explaining that I didn't know him or his wife, but he kept calling me a liar and cursing at me. He said he was coming to kill me. I waited outside all day. Nobody ever showed up."

13.And, finally, this short and sad one: "One day, after my mom and I got home, there was a message from Grandma on the machine (this was back in the days of a separate tape machine the phone plugged into). 'I hate these goddamn machines. Your father’s dead.' *click*"

Has someone ever left you a really frightening voicemail? Tell us in the comments.

Some submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.