Famous Phone Number in the Panhandle 867-5309
It has been more than thirty years since Jenny's telephone number went to number four on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. "867-5309" made Tommy Tutone a star for a little while but the number he made famous has a Bay County woman answering the phone hundreds of times each and every week. It wasn't Jenny who changed her number, but Carrie Routt, 12 years ago.
The Lynn Haven real-estate agent changed her digits and now everyone who calls Jenny reaches Carrie. Carrie Routt thought the same thing about Tommy Tutone's famous number. Dial 8675-309, press call and instead of Jenny you get the mother of two. 12 years ago Carrie looked into the digits, "Just like everybody else we wanted to know what would happen if you called that number." She learned it was available and made up a story to get the number free of charge, "I told them I was getting prank calls on the old phone so I could transfer the old number without paying a fee. Which was kind of ironic because I was getting the number that would give you the most prank calls." And voice mails, Routt gets upwards of 50 prank calls a day. "Oh I love it when she goes in the other room and the phone goes off." Carrie and husband Kyle have been married for six years.
Kyle says he has grown accustomed to his wife getting calls, "In town I wont answer it but if its out of town I'll have fun with it but I think it's more annoying to me than fun so." So why does Carrie not ditch the digits? "I've thought about that. It's sort of part of me and I just can't imagine not having the number but for the right price tag maybe everything is for sell." Husband Kyle would be pleased to see the number go away, "I would love if she sold the number, especially if we made money!" And money could be made; in 2009 a Philadelphia medical student sold the number on eBay for $5,500.
http://www.wmbb.com/story/23990646/famous-phone-number-in-the-panhandle-867-5309
50 calls a day ???