text it?

On Monday night I received a bunch of random TXT messages from an unknown number... they claimed to be "three sexy teens" who were bored. It caught me off guard, so I told them to go bother someone else.  Only they kept on sending me TXT messages... including one that offered to send me pictures of themselves.

Say what?

I again attempted to shut it down, but kept it light in language so as to not have to deal with further messages (including pictures) that I didn't want.  "No... thanks for the chat. I am passionately in love with my wife of 15 years and this is inappropriate."

The reply back? "Wow. Hahaha she doesn't have to know. ;)"

Are you kidding me?

I got angry and fired back.  "Truth is truth no matter who knows... and if I love her then I love her, end of story.  So be done txting me before I make a formal report.  Have a great night."

And that was that.

Then the next morning I received another message from the same number, stating, "Sorry about last night."

And... so... that was that... again.

Then tonight I got another TXT from the same number.

"Hey!"

I didn't answer.  Five minutes later.

"Babe, talk to me!"

I still didn't respond, but instead called my cell phone carrier and asked them to block the number, which they did.  I asked if they could contact the parents (or whomever pays the bill) to let them know what was going on.  (I did some detective work ahead of time and found out that this number is a part of the same cell phone company I use, not to mention the prefix being attributed to a city within a half hour).

Then I called the police and made a formal report.  The officer I spoke with called the number and left a message, telling them to cease from their activities or else further action would happen.

My point is writing this down?

What if I wasn't me?  I mean, what if I was someone who chose to prey on the naivety of those sending me messages on the other end instead of attempting to let their parents know what was going on?

Or what if I wasn't daily working on my marriage?  What if I let the neutrality of each day work against my relationship with my wife?  Would I be more tempted to say, "Sure... send me the pics."

Only that isn't me.

So maybe there are a couple of applications for you via this little adventure in my life:

• If you have kids, do you check on what they're doing with their cell phone?  I know that you may think you don't have the right to check, but... um... that cell phone that you pay for and give to them?  Yeah, it's yours - you're the one who pays the bills.  So please check on your kids... you don't have to be sneaky, but let them know that from time to time you will randomly check who they've been calling (you can do this online if your teens are sneaky about deleting info).
   
• If you're married and someone were to TXT you like this, how would you respond?  What if it wasn't a teenager but "three sexy grown ups" who wanted to send you pictures?
  
  
• If you're single and such a message were to come your way, how far are you willing to dive into such a rabbit hole... and see how deep it goes?  Would you see this as playful flirting that doesn't mean anything, or would your recognize that you are a real person connecting with another real person... and what is said electronically matters as much as if it was said in person?

Just a few random thoughts, written completely out of an emotional place that I find myself in tonight.  I'm praying that the kids who did this (or perhaps, the grown up posing as kids) wises up before something destructive happens to them or through them