An El Cajon couple is less than thrilled that San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders won another four years Tuesday night — but it’s not because they are Steve Francis backers or have any disagreement with the mayor’s policies.
It’s because of a wrong number.
The couple, who are in their 80s and don’t want their names published, have the same phone number — save the area code — as Fred Sainz, Sanders’ spokesman.
For more than two and a half years, the couple has received calls day and night from people meaning to call Sainz’s cell phone.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake, why does he have our number?” said the woman after yours truly mistakenly dialed 619 instead of 858 yesterday. It was the first time anyone had told her about the closeness of their number to Sainz’s.
“We thought [Sainz] was selling dope or something at first, because a lot of the calls were from young people and they were coming at all hours.”
The woman said they have received as many as three or four calls a day for Sainz, and when they come home from trips, their answering machine is often half full with calls to Sanders’ mouthpiece.
The woman’s husband eventually joined our conversation, and said it now all makes sense, because the calls started coming after Sanders was elected. However, he said he’s not about to change his number — he’s had it for 48 years.
“I think the thing to do is find out where Fred is and cut his lines,” he said.
Well, there are a couple other things that could be done. Those of us who call Sainz regularly could pay more attention when dialing. And he could always change his number.
I called Sainz yesterday to pose that suggestion, he didn’t call back.