Don’t Pick Up the Phone is a true crime documentary series directed by Sara Mast and focuses on the strip search caller who committed a series of shocking hoax phone calls across America from 1995 to 2004. The series has 3 episodes, each with a runtime of around 45 minutes.
Don’t Pick Up the Phone Real Story
The documentary series is based on real-life incidents of a person impersonating police and calling fast-food restaurants all over the US to get the managers to perform strip searches on their employees. The crimes started in 1995 with two calls, one in Devils Lake, North Dakota, and another in Fallon, Nevada. After that, the caller called several such restaurants in small towns till 2004, where Don’t Pick Up the Phone starts off – at a McDonald’s in Mount Washington, Kentucky.
After Louise Ogborn was assaulted by then-assistant manager Donna Summers’s fiance Walter Nix Jr., the police in Mount Washington got up in arms to arrest the impersonator. However, the path to their goal wasn’t that easy. Thankfully, after the call ended in Mount Washington, an employee was quick enough to call *69 before any other call came through to McDonald’s, getting the number of the scammer.
The police took this number and found out about the impersonator’s calling card from AT&T after following it, they found surveillance camera videos from a Walmart in Panama City that pointed to him being a correctional officer with the Corrections Corporation of America. The HR department of the company, in the end, helped identify the man, who turned out to be David R. Stewart.
After his arrest, the police found dozens of applications for police department jobs, hundreds of police magazines, and police-style uniforms, guns, and holsters in Stewart’s apartment, who probably fantasized about becoming an officer. The married man and father of five Stewart was eventually extradited to Kentucky on charges of impersonating a police officer and solicitation of sodomy.
Meanwhile, assistant manager Summers was fired from McDonald’s for bringing a non-employee to the offices and violating corporate policies prohibiting strip searches. She entered an Alford guilty plea to a single count of unlawful imprisonment as a misdemeanour and got one year of probation. Nix, too, was arrested for sexual assault and plead guilty to sexual abuse, sexual misconduct and unlawful imprisonment. He was sentenced to five years in prison for his role after entering a plea deal in exchange for his testimony against Stewart.
What Happened to David R. Stewart?
After getting arrested, the strip search caller, facing 10 to 20 years in prison if found guilty, was acquitted of his crimes due to a lack of direct evidence.
The calls stopped after Stewart’s arrest.
Where is David R. Stewart Now?
After being found not guilty, David R. Stewart has stayed away from the public eye. He refused to be a part of the documentary after they reached out to him.
Don’t Pick Up the Phone is streaming on Netflix.
Also Read: Don’t Pick Up the Phone Review: Disturbing and Shockingly Disgusting