Ever Wonder Who Has Your Old Number?

Photo by madmack66 from Flickr used under Creative Commons

If you’re like me, you’ve probably used a bunch of phone numbers throughout the course of your life.

Maybe you moved or changed cell phone providers back in the dark ages when you couldn’t bring your number with you.

Ever get the itch to call one of those numbers, or maybe you just wonder who has that old number now?

This story (h/t Gizmodo) has to be the most bizarre cell phone number story ever. The short version is that every owner of the number 0888 888 888 died under suspicious or nefarious circumstances.

Three men had this Bulgarian number over the last decade, the CEO of Mobitel, who died suspiciously of cancer, rumored to have been caused by a business rival who poisoned him with radiation, a Bulgarian mafia boss, who was gunned down, and a crooked estate agent with a drug business on the side, who was also gunned down in the streets.

Talk about crazy 8s. The cursed number has been retired by the telco.

Too bad, since you can see how desirable a number that would be. I’ll bet these guys got a lot of drunken calls, kinda like anyone with 867-5309 does here in the US.

I would know. In college, I dated woman with the number 497-5309. Within the college, all you had to dial were the last five digits. Weekends were fun. Although that joke has waned over the years I’m sure.

This is a crazy story. Thoughts?