Reach-Out by Phone Means Trouble for Woman, Firm

TOKYO — A woman who allegedly made up to 100,000 crank calls to her former husband since 1986 has been arrested near Tokyo, local police said Friday.

Toyoko Terahashi, 26, allegedly called her former husband at his office, alternately yelling into the phone or saying nothing before hanging up, according to Kawasaki Police Department spokesman Hiroshi Katsutani.

Katsutani said the calls began three months after the couple were divorced in January, 1986, and numbered up to 200 a day. The couple married in May, 1985.

Police said that Terahashi’s husband left her and filed for divorce after he was subjected to domestic violence. Terahashi then began calling the man’s office and homes of more than 20 of his co-workers in an effort to find out where he was living.

The company where the man works complained to police. During their six-week investigation, the woman called the company 753 times.

The woman allegedly told police she initially made the calls because she wanted to see her former husband and thought the company was hiding him from her. Later, however, the calls were “simply out of spite,” Katsutani said.

Terahashi was arrested for harassing the company and could face up to three years in jail or a fine of up to 200,000 yen ($1,600).

Katsutani said that when investigators arrived at her home Thursday to arrest her, she was yelling “You idiot!” into the phone.