What do you expect if you call a number for the lobster industry?

Oooh dear. I’ve tapped away at the keyboard producing publications with phone numbers in them often enough to know how easy it can be to get a number a wrong.

Even once had to ring someone to warn them we’d just produced a leaflet with their phone number in it by mistake.

Lucky me though that this has never happened to me, so far…:

Last week the Canadian government announced a financial stimulus program for the country’s lobster fishery, which is ailing because of low demand. But callers to a toll-free telephone number the government published online and in a news release received little information about crustaceans or bailout funds.

“Hey there, hot stuff, I’ve been waiting for your call,” a woman’s voice on the recorded message says with barely audible romantic music in the background. “Are you ready for some tantalizing fun?” …

Scott Cantin, a spokesman for Canada’s department of fisheries, said the agency published the correct phone number but prefaced it with the wrong long distance area code.

Brownie points to the lobster industry for this dead-pan response:

Ken Drake, the president of the Prince Edward Island Fishermen’s Association, said that it was fortunate that children were unlikely to have called a lobster fishery inquiries number.

Source: New York Times.