The mysterious late-night calls began a few days after Los Angeles student Shira Barlow replaced a cellphone that she had dropped into a toilet in February.
Suddenly Barlow began getting calls from strangers wishing “Paris” a happy birthday, requesting access to the most exclusive Hollywood nightclubs or trying to find out about star-studded parties.
“Baby girl, how are you?” a man asked in a foreign accent.
“Why are you doing this?” a woman caller asked. “This is so rude.”
When Barlow checked with her phone service provider, the source of the mystery was revealed: she had unwittingly been allocated the old cellphone number of celebrity hotel heiress Paris Hilton.
Months later, Barlow is still getting calls from people claiming to be members of Hilton’s social circle, the student told Friday’s Los Angeles Times.
More recently, Hilton’s fans had bombarded Barlow’s phone with messages of support following her prison sentence for probation violation.
“People were scared for her,” Barlow told the newspaper, revealing that she has no plans to request a new number from her cellphone operator.
“It was really out of convenience. I didn’t want to switch again,” she said. — AFP