Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 3, 1994 TAG: 9403030084
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CODY LOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
He is pastor of one of the fastest-growing Southern Baptist churches in the state, a highly visible figure whose face and voice are seen and heard regularly in TV, radio and print advertising. And he's spent his share of time knocking on doors, especially when the Blue Ridge church was younger, inviting those in nearby neighborhoods to attend.
That visibility apparently has made him the target of a prankster who is pretending to be Via over the telephone.
It started Sunday, Via said, when a church member reported that someone had called a friend at 6 a.m., identifying himself as Via. The caller made a pitch to try to get the person to attend Rainbow Forest that day, but started using "foul language" when the invitation was rejected.
Via mentioned the incident from the pulpit that morning, but didn't worry too much more about it until Tuesday, when a report of a similar call reached the church.
This time the person who received the call - at 3 a.m. - called the church office in Blue Ridge later that morning to let Via know what was happening.
In both cases, Via said, the people who were called realized it was an imposter - though one said the caller sounded remarkably like the pastor. Via worries that if he's heard about two calls, there may have been many others and that the pranks could harm the church's reputation.
"The calls appear to be random," he said, and he's not sure if the bogus caller has a grudge against him or the church or if he is simply pulling a prank.
Major Ken Smith, chief deputy in the Botetourt County Sheriff's Office, said it is illegal "to use profane language over the telephone."
However, catching and prosecuting someone who is making random profane calls would be difficult, he said.
Smith advised those who get the calls to simply hang up. If the caller makes continual annoying calls, a sharp whistle blast over the phone tends to discourage a repeat call. In this case, though, that kind of response might provoke the caller into making additional calls, Smith said.
If the calls persist, the Sheriff's Office should be contacted, Smith said, so attempts can be made to track down the caller.
Mike Layman, a vice president with the Roanoke and Botetourt Telephone Co., said it would be difficult if not impossible to trace this caller.
Those who receive calls could use the star-69 dialing feature on touch-tone phones to immediately redial the bogus caller, but if he is dialing from outside the local network that won't work.
Via said he hopes the caller will just give up the game.
In any case, he wants people to know that if they get a call rousting them out of bed at 6 a.m. with an invitation to visit Rainbow Forest church, it's not from Rick Via.
by CNB