Death Threats

[Ace]

Technically, this wasn't a death threat, but I missed a volleyball game due to my brother getting in an accident at work. He almost died. Word traveled around the office and people called in and complained about the game not getting covered. I go to the same school to cover a game a week later and had someone screaming "Hey jerk, how's your brother" in a loud, sarcastic voice as I walked past the stands. I turned around and a bunch of parents sat there smirking.

I would have said: "Better thanks. How do you like your games not being covered?"

And left.

 

[SportsDude]

Technically, this wasn't a death threat, but I missed a volleyball game due to my brother getting in an accident at work. He almost died. Word traveled around the office and people called in and complained about the game not getting covered. I go to the same school to cover a game a week later and had someone screaming "Hey jerk, how's your brother" in a loud, sarcastic voice as I walked past the stands. I turned around and a bunch of parents sat there smirking.

I would have said: "Better thanks. How do you like your games not being covered?"

And left.

That would have been a more appropriate response, but I didn't come up with it at the time. I did bust the same school on a couple big stories down the road. I guess what goes around does indeed come around from time to time.

 

[BYH]

I had one.

We were doing a story on Coach X committing [said felony]. We had everything. Victim's family, documents, couple of witnesses, comments from local municipalities and bureaucracies. We needed Coach X's comment. He knew it was coming.

We call him, and he goes forking ape shirt. I really didn't care. I expected it. And, it really didn't matter what he had to say. We just had to give him an opportunity.

Later that afternoon, we get a document from a previous Freedom of Info Act we submitted. It wasn't terribly important. But, it did give some chronology to the story. So, I pull the story from the budget and from the paper.

So, we spend the next two days reworking the story to give it proper chronology. He calls me several times. He yells at me. Screams at me. Tells me he's going to "own [my f'ing] house." I expected it. Big deal. Go for it, Dude. Good luck.

The last one, the day before it was to appear in the paper, was a real one. You would recognize it if it happened to you. There was pure, unadulterated desperation in his voice. The kind when you grit your teeth. Anger. Pure anger. The Dirtbag was serious.

Me: "We're running it."
Dirtbag: "You're mother [f'ing] dead. And I know where your family goes to church."
(My wife and I had one daughter at the time.)
Me: "You just made the second biggest mistake of your life."
Dirtbag: "What are you going to do about it?"
Me: "Goodbye."

Walked over to the Managing Editor's office. He called the Editor. We all called the FBI.

He lost everything. The Dirtbag pleads to a lesser charge on the felony. But, he pleads no contest to "disseminating death threat(s) over phone lines."

(Nothing about the death threats appeared in the paper. Not until Metro covered the conclusion and complete sentencing was revealed.)

That was nine years ago. He gets out in June, I'm told.
He would have been out a long time ago had he not made that phone call. Dirtbag.

Awesome. Totally awesome.

 

[DocTalk]

Death threats or similar more heinous retaliations are considered de rigeur my patient clientele. My home address and phone number remain unlisted and the hospital knows not to release the information under penalty of death. Fortunately cell phones allow communication without revealing location.

I wasn't aware of this. So doctors get a lot of heat from unhappy relatives and such?

Is it more commone in the ER or surgery practices?

It's only happened like twice in 20 years on ER.

Some of my patients are unhappy when they are refused narcotics, or other controlled substances. Some are mentally unstable. I hope that reasonable family members are rarely dissatisfied with my bedside manner.

 

[ink-stained wretch]

I've had one reporter threatened. She was savvy enough to tape the conversation. Cops handled it very nicely.

I have been waiting for the local Nazi wannabe to cross the line. So far, he's tiptoed up to it then chickened out.

Always call the cops. Word gets out.

 

[Piotr Rasputin]

During my days as an "Internet columnist" I received death threats all the time. The funniest being a guy asking me for my address. He said he was going to kick my ass and kill me, and if I had any balls, I would tell him where I lived so he could come over. I told him to give me his address, I would come over to his house, and we could talk about it like men in his front yard. His reply was, "Nice one, fag!"

Technically, this wasn't a death threat, but I missed a volleyball game due to my brother getting in an accident at work. He almost died. Word traveled around the office and people called in and complained about the game not getting covered. I go to the same school to cover a game a week later and had someone screaming "Hey jerk, how's your brother" in a loud, sarcastic voice as I walked past the stands. I turned around and a bunch of parents sat there smirking.

I would have left. fork 'em, they must not want coverage if they need to act like asses. Your brother is more important than the biggest game in the history of the biggest sport, much less some random volleyball game.

I also would not have covered any more of that team's home games that season, and let the coach know exactly why if he/she asked.

I've received a bodily harm threat or two. Mostly while standing on the sidelines at prep soccer games, called out from the stands, people noting they'll follow me to my car, etc. A moment of nervousness, but that's really just idiots looking to make ass. Received a few letters that I hung up in the office for amusement.

Made a point to cover as many of that school's home games as I could, but would have anyway since they were our best team. Here I am, say what you've got to say, losers.

No real death threats, thank goodness.

 

[spup1122]

I left before it ever got to the point that it could be a death threat, but I had some pretty interesting info on one of the drug dealers in town from a former girlfriend and was connected enough to the police officers that I knew he was the primary suspect in a murder investigation and had heard from people around town that he was bragging about having killed this guy. The only person I told about the information I knew from his former girlfriend was my editor. She told me if they ever arrested him for the murder that we were running whatever information we had/could get. I absolutely refused to put my name on the story. I said they could run it without a byline at all, but that I was not going to be connected to the story.

The guy had a history of making people who gave information to police or cross him go away. I was in no mood to be one of those people. From everything I have heard, the guy who got killed was one of those people.

Other than that, just a bunch of nasty physical violence threats. Nothing ever came of them and I didn't make a big deal about them.

 

[21]

Technically, this wasn't a death threat, but I missed a volleyball game due to my brother getting in an accident at work. He almost died. Word traveled around the office and people called in and complained about the game not getting covered. I go to the same school to cover a game a week later and had someone screaming "Hey jerk, how's your brother" in a loud, sarcastic voice as I walked past the stands. I turned around and a bunch of parents sat there smirking.

I wish you had smiled sadly, walked over and put your hand on the guy's shoulder, and said, 'Thank you so much for asking....Mom's doing a little better now that the funeral is behind us....we finally found a good orphanage for his kids, what with their mother still in the coma...it means so much to know so many people really care. Hey, I better get to work, God bless!'

 

[outofplace]

Technically, this wasn't a death threat, but I missed a volleyball game due to my brother getting in an accident at work. He almost died. Word traveled around the office and people called in and complained about the game not getting covered. I go to the same school to cover a game a week later and had someone screaming "Hey jerk, how's your brother" in a loud, sarcastic voice as I walked past the stands. I turned around and a bunch of parents sat there smirking.

I wish you had smiled sadly, walked over and put your hand on the guy's shoulder, and said, 'Thank you so much for asking....Mom's doing a little better now that the funeral is behind us....we finally found a good orphanage for his kids, what with their mother still in the coma...it means so much to know so many people really care. Hey, I better get to work, God bless!'

I bow to the wit that is 21.

 

[21]

Technically, this wasn't a death threat, but I missed a volleyball game due to my brother getting in an accident at work. He almost died. Word traveled around the office and people called in and complained about the game not getting covered. I go to the same school to cover a game a week later and had someone screaming "Hey jerk, how's your brother" in a loud, sarcastic voice as I walked past the stands. I turned around and a bunch of parents sat there smirking.

I wish you had smiled sadly, walked over and put your hand on the guy's shoulder, and said, 'Thank you so much for asking....Mom's doing a little better now that the funeral is behind us....we finally found a good orphanage for his kids, what with their mother still in the coma...it means so much to know so many people really care. Hey, I better get to work, God bless!'

I bow to the NITwit that is 21.

Just beating someone else to it.

 

[Johnny Dangerously]

While investigating my alma mater for wrongdoing that ultimately put the program on probation and had the entire coaching staff canned, I had my legs and my life threatened. These were serious warnings: The coach's brothers were union goons, one of whom had a prison record (embezzlement) and was reputed to know where certain bodies were buried. After the smoke cleared, one of their neighbors laughed about it and said I didn't have anything to worry about.

"The reason you're still alive," he said, "is you didn't write anything that wasn't true."

 

[Rufino]

In a lot of situations, those of us in radio have a better deal than print people but this isn't one of them. Anyone who's ticked at us knows where we are for a set period of time every day. My old radio station thought it was a great idea to have our studio in a shopping center complex. People could literally walk up to the window of the studio and wave, flick us off, moon us, you name it. Great plan, huh?

One day, I got a call in my office from a particularly crazy listener who disagreed with my assessment of the football coaching staff's performance. He claimed he was going to settle it by taking me out that day with a 12 gauge live on the air. I didn't call it in because I knew he was full of shirt and didn't want to put any fuel on the fire, but I can't deny being at least a little jumpy for the next couple of days. Six months later the guy dropped off a bag of butternut squash he'd grown by the station to apologize. For some reason, I decided to pass on cooking that up.