update: I think our intern prank-called us

This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager .
It’s a special “where are you now?” season at Ask a Manager and I’m running updates from people who had their letters here answered in the past.
There will be more posts than usual this week, so keep checking back throughout the day.
Remember the letter-writer who thought their intern prank-called the office ? Here’s the update.
So first, thank you for answering my question! Unfortunately, it was posted on what turned out to be a very busy day of an even busier week, so I wasn’t able to interact with the comments, though I did read all of them. I’ll start with the update and then address a few other things:
I wasn’t there when my boss and the person who oversees interns met with our intern to discuss the incident, but I was told he seemed very surprised and said he didn’t have anything to do with the prank call. We decided to take him at his word. Like I said, he didn’t really seem the type, and I know technology has advanced so far these days that I don’t want to jump to the worst conclusion at the cost of hurting someone who actually is innocent. Did he secretly pull a fast one on all of us? Maybe, but his internship went by without further incident so at worst he was guilty but learned his lesson (or at least learned about caller ID). He did also apologize to me for the incident, and he seemed sincere. At the end of his internship he also thanked me for taking time out of my schedule to teach him and find projects for him, so I’m really glad either way that he was able to see his internship through!
Just a few notes:
First, while in my original letter I expressed some annoyance from an employer perspective, from a personal perspective I thought it was hilarious. My department was laughing so much at the voicemail that a couple of other folks came over to see what was going on and also found it amusing. I’ve saved the message for future laughs.
Second, I will say once I got home and played the voicemail for my husband on my cell phone (as opposed to my work phone) it was much more obvious to me that the “woman” was clearly a young man trying to put on an old lady voice. He wasn’t doing too bad either (though he did waver a bit between a New York/New Jersey accent and a southern drawl at one point, so he needs to work on his dialects).
Third, there was some discussion about what name the pranker wanted to name our theater. Sorry to disappoint, but this wasn’t a Seymour Butz or Amanda Huginkiss situation. The name was just a regular name. In fact, we found out it was the real name of a couple who is apparently very philanthropic in a larger nearby city. This is one thing that made the prank less funny since it lent some credibility to the situation. Obviously we would never move forward assuming this was a real pledge without necessary paperwork, but it still could have had a negative impact on us or the couple in question.
Fourth, someone in the comments pointed out that I had made an error in calling $7 million a six-figure gift rather than a seven-figure gift. That was a mistake on my part (what can I say, I was a bit tipsy that afternoon…)
Finally, if anyone is interested, here is a full transcript of the prank phone call (including a bit at the end where the caller “forgot” to hang up). The names have been changed to protect the innocent (and the guilty):
“[starting off with a NY/NJ type accent] Hi (my name), yeah, hi, this is Prudence. I was told this was the right number to call. My husband and I are hoping to donate 7 million dollars to The Theater, um, and are interested in name recognition. Could you give this number a call back to discuss the possibility of donating many millions of dollars? Uh, I’m … I’d love it to be named the Prudence Snooter … Prudence and Wakeen Snooter Theater. And if that’s more like 12 or 15 million, [dipping into a southern drawl] my husband and I would be interested. Could you just give this number a call back? Thank you.
[back into the NY/NJ accent, in the distance] Wakeen, I just called The Theater … I called ‘em … Wakeen get off the toilet, I called The Theater. How much money are you willing to give them? 15? 14 million? That’s what I told the lady on the phone … she didn’t answer … oh gawd, it’s still recording … oh gawd.”
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