Nida, Phone Home

The previous episode about Rico Yan reminded me of a past office incident.
 
This was during the time when cellphone snatching was rampant in the office. Our officemate, let’s call him Joe, had a nasty habit of leaving his phone unattended on his table. We always warned him; he kept forgetting. So one day we decided to teach him a lesson.
 
When he left his table, another officemate, let’s call him Frank, took Joe’s phone, accessed its address book and changed his name to “Nida Blanca” (the famous actress was just recently discovered murdered; her story was all over the news during this time.)
 
When Joe went back to his table, Frank sent him a text message. A few seconds later, Joe’s phone beeped.
 
We saw Joe turn pale as he read the message. “Oh my god. I got a text from Nida Blanca!” he said out loud.
 
We played along. “Owwws?!” “What?” “Nida Blanca? As in?” “C’mon, really?!”
 
“Look, look, look!” Joe was waving his phone at our faces. “It’s Nida Blanca!”
 
Doing our best to keep a straight face, we asked him, “What did she say?” Joe read the message: “Please help me. Can someone help me please?”
 
At this point some of us were already visibly tittering. Joe saw this, and it dawned on him.
 
“Ay, mga pooon-yea-taaah kayo!!!”
 
After that, Joe never left his cellphone unattended.
 
(A few days later Joe’s phone got snatched, ironically while he was with the hundreds of people who lined the streets to gawk at Nida’s funeral entourage when she was about to be laid to rest. He wanted to freak out the snatcher into returning his phone. He had Frank text this message: “Please return this phone to my friend Joe. Have mercy on him. Or else I’ll visit you in your dreams.” But there was no reply, and Joe never got his phone back.)