(I wish there was a Post Icon of a guy gnashing his teeth in anger, because I'd use that for this post)

So, for the past 5 days, I've been receiving a calls from a nearby Verizon Wireless cellphone user. No biggie, right, except that the cell calls me EVERY 40 minutes AROUND the clock. Yet when I pick up, all I hear is dead air for 2.5 minutes until it hangs up. And though it lets the phone ring 4 times, it never a dead air message on my (phone company managed) voicemail.

A call to Verizon quickly revealed that, yes, this is a cell phone calling me. However, the rep could not do anything about it, and only sort of said that my local police could contact Verizon to help stop it.

Call to my local police have yeilded nothing but passing the buck for days and days. They suggested that I use Sprints *57, but couldn't tell me what to do with it once I did. And Sprint's *57 service quaintly disconnected me before telling me what I needed to do. A call to Sprint's customer service reps tomorrow might help, but they may just tell me to keep pressing *57, which costs $1 every time; as if Sprint doesn't nickel-and-dime me to death already (but that's another, much more angry rant).

So, I wonder three things:

1. Does anyone know of a feature on a Verizon-able cell phone that calls a number every 40 minutes for days on end?

2. Does anyone here work at Verizon that could help me stop this insanity?

3. Is it helping suck up the caller's minutes and generate a huge bill because I pick up the calls and let them sit for 2.5 minutes? And does it suck up their minutes simply to dial me even when I can't pick up?

I really hate having to take my phone off the hook every night for fear of missing a legitimate call. I'm basicaly being DoS'ed by someone or something, and it's making me kind of mad. Thoughts? Thanks everyone.