By: Pepper Fisher

PORT ANGELES – KONP has received reports of what appear to be a rash of telephone harassment calls from a man who tries to initiate profane conversations with women while making lewd noises as if pleasuring himself.

Multiple women on social media agree the calls are coming from the same phone number, which begins with area code  (360) and prefix 797-. We won’t publish the rest of the number to potentially protect the innocent. Several of those that have been harassed have called the number back, but no one ever answers. One local business manager told us their employees have received 4 calls this year from the same man using the same number.

We reached out to local law enforcement to see if they have received reports on this and to find out what can be done.

Sequim and Port Angeles Police received calls on Tuesday from callers with virtually identical reports, but neither caller wanted to pursue charges.

Sgt. John Keegan from the Sheriff’s Office says what’s being reported might reach the level of Telephone Harassment, a gross misdemeanor, and he encourages the victims to contact law enforcement.

PAPD Sgt. Tom Kuch says Telephone Harassment can be a tricky charge to prove.

“But I think if we had a pattern of the him doing it to the same person, I think it would be enough for them to get a restraining order or no contact order. And then if he violates that, then it’s a crime.”

Keegan says that if a person reports this and wants to have the violator prosecuted, law enforcement may apply for a search warrant for the suspects phone records. He says another option is to confront the suspect and encourage them to stop the criminal behavior.

One of the things to be aware of is “spoofing”, a common technique used by telephone scammers. Spoofing is when someone uses a computer program or app to make a different phone number appear on the caller ID of the victim.

Whether that’s the case here or not, judging by the number of women on social media who have heard from this guy, the harassment so far appears to have been under-reported.