Series Review: "Don't Pick Up the Phone" (2022).

From the director of Dr. Death: The Undoctored Story comes Don't Pick Up the Phone. This crime documentary series directed by Sara Mast. This docuseries follows the investigation into a hoax caller who talked managers into strip-searching employees at fast food businesses across the US.

In 1994, a series of incidents, mostly occurring in rural areas of the United States, that extended over a period of at least ten years, began and was known as The Strip Search Phone Call Scam. There were numerous prior incidents in many states which followed the pattern of the fraudulent call to a McDonald's restaurant in Mount Washington, Kentucky. The majority of the calls were made to fast-food chain restaurants, but some were made to grocery stores and video rental stores. With every hoax, a male caller who identified himself as a police officer or other authority figure would contact a manager or supervisor and would solicit their help in detaining an employee or customer who was suspected of a crime, such as theft or drug possession. He would then provide a generic description of the suspect (typically a young female employee, but a few victims have been male or older) which the manager would recognize, and he would then ask the manager to search the suspected person. The tasks would initially start as strip searches before gradually becoming more invasive and sexual in nature as the "investigation" continued. Eventually, the caller would have groomed the manager to the point where they would do almost anything asked by the caller, such as spanking, kissing, inappropriate touching, oral sex, and even sexual assault and rape. Many of the incidents would last hours before either the participants of the strip search realized the call is a hoax or by the intervention of a bystander. The calls were most often placed to fast-food restaurants in small towns. More than seventy such phone calls were reported in thirty U.S. states, until a 2004 incident in Mount Washington, Kentucky led to the arrest of David Richard Stewart. Stewart was acquitted of all charges in the Mount Washington case. He was suspected of, but never charged with, having made other, similar scam calls. Police reported that the scam calls ended after Stewart's arrest. Louise Ogborn, the Mount Washington victim, underwent therapy and medication to address post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. She abandoned her plans to attend the University of Louisville, where she had anticipated becoming a pre-med student. Three years after the incident, still undergoing therapy, Louise Ogborn sued McDonald's for $200 million for failing to protect her during her ordeal. The civil trial began September 10, 2007, and ended on October 5, 2007, when a jury awarded Ogborn $5 million in punitive damages and $1.1 million in compensatory damages and expenses.

As admirable it was that Stump and Flaherty’s investigation went in innovative directions in order to even find someone to arrest in this case, the effect on the people who were victimized by the calls is likely the more interesting story.

Simon says Don't Pick Up the Phone receives: