Below I have listed a series of text messages I received on the night of November 19, 2006. I wasn’t entirely sure if something paranormal was at work here, so I’ll let you be the judge. Commentary will be provided under each message in Italics.

Sent: 540-112-7699
Received: 540-112-1143
Time Received: Nov 19, 5:49 PM
Hey, is your ph@@@ acti@g sttttTTT@@@nge?

This was a message from a friend who lived a few blocks up from me at the time. Previously, my phone had not been doing anything out of the ordinary, but judging from the garbled text here, this was the start of the chain. It would also appear that this friend was experiencing the same phenomenon I would soon be seeing. More on that later.

Sent: Private Number
Received: 540-112-1143
Time Received: Nov 19, 6:12 PM
zzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Nothing but chatter in this message, but it’s an important part of the larger picture.

Sent: Private Number
Received: 540-112-1143
Time Received: Nov 19, 6:13 PM
zzzzzzGOODzzzzzzzzz
zzzzzzMORNINGzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

This message was sent immediately after the previous one. It’s definitely from the same source, given the repeated bludgeoning of the Z key, but I still have yet to figure out what the significance of “GOOD MORNING” was. At this point I was getting a little frustrated at my phone company, since I assumed this was caused by technical difficulties on their end. I even almost turned my phone off, but I’m glad I didn’t.

Sent: @@@-@@@-@@@@
Received: 540-112-1143
Time Received: Nov 19, 6:17 PM
whoamiwhatamiwheramiwhereamiWHEREAMI

This is the point where the tone and subject matter of the messages start to change. You’ll notice that “Private Number” has started to glitch; I had never seen my phone do this and it hasn’t since. Additionally, the content of the message seems to, for the first time of the night, be coming from an intelligent source rather than bits of junk. It sounds confused.

Sent: 540-767-2424
Received: 540-112-1143
Time Received: Nov 19, 6:21 PM
r u at home dude? Check outside ur window. fog is wicked!!!!

This was a normal text message from a drinking buddy. He mentions the fog, which may be important; it was, as he (kind of) says, unnaturally thick that night. More like a dark smoke than fog, really.

Sent: @@@-@@@-@@@@
Received: 540-112-1143
Time Received: Nov 19, 6:27 PM
GET ON YOUR KNEES
AND
PROSTRATE

Sent: Private Number
Received: 540-112-1143
Time Received: Nov 19, 6:30 PM
thickerthanblood thickerthanblood thickerthanblood thickerthanblood

Sent: 510-112-1143
Received: 540-112-1143
Time Received: Nov 19, 6:31 PM
FINALWARNING

This is the part where the text messages stop becoming annoying and switch over to unsettling. I got these three in rapid-fire succession, each from a different source: one from the glitched line, one from the unlisted, and one which apparently came from my own phone. I assume the last one was another glitch caused by who or whatever was doing this, but at this point it was pretty clear there was some sort of intelligence behind the messages, even if they were rudimentary. Doesn’t sound confused anymore, either; sounds angry.

Sent: Private Number
Received: 540-112-1143
Time Received: Nov 19, 8:56 PM
L is for the way you LOOK at me
O is for the @@NLY one I see
V is very verrrr@@@@ exzzzztraordin@@@@
E issszzzZZZZZZZZZZZ@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

First new message in the past two and a half hours and it was garbled Nat King Cole lyrics? Can’t say I wasn’t a little disappointed. Got a little laugh, though.

Sent: PROTECTTHEGATE
Received: 540-112-1143
Time Received: Nov 19, 8:88 PM
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Despite what the glitched time data says, I received forty copies of this message at 9 PM sharp. Again, no idea what “PROTECTTHEGATE” means, but I am interested in how that could be a phone number.

Sent: @@@-@@@-@@@@
Received: 540-112-1143
Time Received: Nov 19, 9: 12 PM
zzzzzzzzzzhitting yourself

Your guess is as good as mine.

Sent: Private Number
Received: 540-112-1143
Time Received: Nov 19, 9:30 PM
Status: unfastened
UNFASTENED UNFASTENED@@@@@@@@

This was the last message I got that had any semblance of weirdness that night. It’s probably just more gibberish, but gates come unfastened, don’t they? Maybe there’s some kind of logic in these I’m not seeing.

So there you have it. What do the rest of you make of these? Technical difficulties at the phone company, bizarre weather corrupting airborne data, or something else?