The House That Spam Built
aka A Visit to 6747 Minnow Pond Drive
On December 8, 2002, I had taken a page on the 24 hour pager for work to fix what appeared
to be a down server, which turned out to be a false alarm. Said server was located in the
Wixom MI area. After I finished the call, since my route would take me reasonably close
to the West Bloomfield area, I thought I would take a look at the new home owned by bulk email
marketer Alan Ralsky, which had been
the subject of a Detroit Free Press article on November 22, 2002. I did this more as an exercise
in curiosity but I also knew, having kept up with the news.admin.net-abuse.email newsgroup on Usenet and the subsequent stories
posted on Slashdot, that a good deal of people were curious
as to what sort of house Mr. Ralsky had bought. I stopped along the way and purchased a cheapo
Kodak camera to grab a couple of photos while I was there.
Upon arrival, I positioned myself on an adjacent street with an excellent view of the western-facing
facade of the home, climbed out of the car and stood in the middle of the street and snapped a few photos. I then moved
my car to a position just south of 6747 Minnow Pond Drive, shot the for sale sign in the front yard of the home to the south,
then moved further north to capture shots of the front of the house. From this point on, I remained inside my vehicle on the street.
I then moved my car around for some shots of the northern exposure of the house. After shooting three more photos, I looked up to see
a blond gentleman of medium height and build get into the black Jaguar that had been parked in the driveway and pull out in my direction.
At that point, I picked my camera up and one-offed a shot of the car, capturing most of the front stantion of my own car, however the classic Jaguar hood ornament is plainly visible
in that shot. Since the flash on the stupid Kodak automatically arms and was triggered each time I took a photo, the driver noticed it and turned around.
At this point, I continued south on Minnow Pond to the cul de sac and turned around. I found that the driver of the Jag had moved his vehicle in an attempt to partially block
my path and had rolled down his window. I decided that it would be most prudent not to have any contact with this person at all and to go about my own way. Next thing I know, the Jag
driver had pulled behind me and was trying to overtake my vehicle, surpassing normal residential speeds, honking his horn all the while.
I sped up, made my way back out to Maple Road and turned west. In my rearview mirror, I could see Mr. Jag had turned eastbound. I breathed a sigh of relief,
decided that my idea to go on a photo shoot probably wasn't my best, then drove home after stopping to drop the camera off for processing. I requested prints
and a CDROM so that I could post the photos here.
After my return home, I didn't think much of the events of the afternoon and went about my normal business. The next day, Monday the 9th, upon arriving home from work, I noticed there were a pair of messages
waiting on my answering machine. The first message originated at a number in Georgia, 770-657-1021, at somewhere around 1:30 in the afternoon (the third call came from the same number and wiped out the
caller ID entry on my phone). The second came from a number in Colorado, 720-587-9978, at 3:45 pm. I have since discovered that these numbers come up in caller-id when a call is made using a pre-paid phone card from AT&T, which are sold at most convenience stores, gas stations and supermarkets throughout the US.
I immediately wrote a quick email to a certain NANAE member who is rather adept at gathering information
to see if she could come up with anything on either number. The results of her search were inconclusive, so I took a gamble, *67'd my phone and dialed each number. Both calls were met with a message
indicating they were part of a prepaid call system and that I would be unable to return the call to the calling party. I immediately transcribed both messages. I then sent emails to my lady sleuth on nanae
and dropped a note with my story and the call transcripts to the reporter who did the original stories in the Detroit Free Press.
I paid extra attention to securing my home that evening before bed and went to sleep thinking of Rules 1 and 3. These threatening calls went right along with Rule 1, with their empty threats and lies about how the caller
was right outside my home, looking it over. Rule 3 was proven
in that someone--I heard two separate, distinct voices and language styles when comparing the first two calls--was rather stupid to leave threatening messages on an answering machine.
After an uneventful night
sleeping and a day at work, I returned home to find the third message, dated by my caller id as having come in on December 10 at 3:03 pm, shortly before my arrival home. I transcribed this new message,
then grabbed my laptop and a mic and made wav files of my messages, which I had saved on my answering machine. A few emails later and several people, including my sleuth and the Free Press reporter, had copies of the wavs for safe keeping. Later, after dinner, I collected a copy of my transcripts, supporting printouts of the related news stories and went to the local police department to file a report regarding the threatening
calls.
Wednesday evening, I picked up the photos and was disappointed to see that I didn't have a good clear shot of the license plate on the Jaguar in the driveway, which would have been the best clue as to the identity of my pursuer. Oh, well, que sera. I still have my provenance that there had been
a black Jaguar in the driveway and that the Jag had driven past my vehicle just preceding the chase.
So, make your own judgements. I am simply reporting my side of the story for anyone and everyone to see. As part of the public records that have been searched by people much more knowledgeable than me,
Mr. Ralsky has had past legal problems in not just the State of Michigan, but the States of Ohio and Illinois. I'll leave the rest up to the gentle reader to puzzle through.
Call Transcripts
MP3 of all three phone calls
Photos of the house
Mr. Ralsky's interview on NPR
New Detroit Free Press story covering my exploits
Additional mirrors for the images
Blowup of the Jaguar's tail
Update, December 2003: Well, here it is, nigh upon a year since my encounter with Ralsky (or his son; I had heard a rumor from the grapevine that his son is the owner of the Jaguar) and I'm still very much alive and well. Further proof that if you've got a spammer blustering death threats on your telephone, just ignore it, it will go away.
Oh, and Al? Fuck you.
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