Guardian's Unwilling Receptionist Now a Bellhop

Smoking room? You want a smoking room?

​Yesterday we brought you the strange tale of Jimmy Sosa, a mental health counselor who, through a twist of fate, has been fielding calls meant for the San Francisco Bay Guardian for more than a decade.

Because his cellphone is just one digit off from the newspaper's main number, he's been treated to years of "some really crazy stories: People walking around naked, trees on fire, bedbugs -- lots of bedbugs -- 'a dog bit my neighbor.' Anything you can think of. It's gotten to the point where, if I don't recognize the number, I don't answer it. But they leave voice messages. And they're angry!"

Sosa enjoys the calls, for the most part. But a trio of calls this morning -- early -- were less pleasant.

Three separate callers phoned him up thinking he was a hotel. This he is certainly not. The last errant dialer huffily told him that his number was listed on the Internet as a place of lodging. When he inquired further, he was told to look it up himself.

Some quick web searching reveals that Sosa's full phone number is not listed for a hotel -- though it seems odd that three people would somehow make the same mistake within the course of one morning. His digits are, however, listed as the contact number for a hotel -- in Kuwait. With a different area code, of course. That three American callers would somehow suddenly want to book a stay in the Persian Gulf and somehow miss the international dialing code seems a stretch, too.

So, it's a mystery. But it always is for Sosa. Truly, he never knows who will call next. And that notion has only deepened after this morning.

But, no, he won't book you a room. 

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