Telephone Calls Leave Women Scared to Death

Suzanne Willert, a 46-year-old interior designer, is not easily frightened, but an early-morning phone call has left her terrified and shaken.

A male caller with a deep, authoritative voice reached Willert at her home in La Jolla just as she was getting ready to leave for work.

“He said very sternly that if I wanted to ever see Fred alive again, I should do exactly as I’m told,” Willert said. “He seemed angry at me. I had no doubt he meant business.”

Willert’s husband, an excavating and grading contractor, is named Fred. Their 19-year-old son, a heavy-equipment operator, is Fred Jr.

“I was so terrified that I didn’t even ask which Fred he was talking about or why he was saying these things,” Willert said. “He asked me if I was dressed yet and told me to wait for two men in a car to pick me up. He was very much in command.”

Her fingers barely able to punch the right numbers, Willert called her husband at his office. He was in no danger. Their son was safely out on a job site.

“Even after I knew it was just a hoax, I was still shaking,” Willert said. “I’m still afraid when the phone rings early in the morning. I’m afraid it might be him again.”

Willert is not alone in her fear. Two dozen women in San Diego and El Cajon have told police about similar intimidating calls in recent weeks.

Sometimes the caller pretends to be a police officer, sometimes an immigration officer; sometimes, as in Willert’s case, he makes no pretense at all and goes straight to issuing threats. Sometimes he tries to draw the woman into a salacious conversation.

In all the cases, the mystery caller uses the same psychological hook by mentioning the name of someone close to the woman--a husband, a friend, a lover.

Police advise that any woman receiving such a call should refuse to give out any information over the phone and instead try to get the caller’s name and number and then call police.

“I want this guy caught,” Willert said. “If I had a heart condition or was prone to a nervous breakdown, his call would have pushed me over the brink.”

Brown Noshing

Yes, that was former Gov. Jerry Brown lunching with a group Monday at Rainwater’s in San Diego. He was the one using a lap-top computer to take notes.

The idiosyncratic Brown was meeting with members of the San Diego County Democratic Central Committee. He’s interested in becoming state party chairman.

Fate Worse Than Berkeley

The San Diego Police Officers Assn. has begun a last stand against Proposition F, the police review board measure, with radio ads linking the measure to a similar plan used in Berkeley.

“Berkeley,” says one ad. “Burning flags, burning draft cards, sanctuary laws, regulations that keep law enforcement officers from enforcing laws, delegates to Cuba . . . “

The punch line: “There are some people who would love to see San Diego run like Berkeley.”

The ads assert that Proposition F, sponsored by the City Charter Review Commission, would cost $1 million a year (“enough to hire 25 new officers”) and allow paroled felons to sit in judgment of cops. The POA prefers Proposition G, which puts a review panel under the city manager’s control.

POA President Ron Newman says the ads, designed by a New York media consultant, have been booked on one station through Election Day and may spread to others, depending on the response. A mailer is also planned.

Review commission member Jim Johnston said he will seek free radio time for the pro-F side by invoking the spirit of the federal Fairness Doctrine. He finds the POA ads full of “hysterical distortions.”

“The commission studied a variety of police panels, and Proposition F is a hybrid, not patterned after one model,” Johnston said.