Poor Darren P, Winnipeg born and bred. Last Sunday he was in a happy, committed relationship and by the end of the day on Monday he was homeless and nursing a broken heart because his girlfriend discovered saucy text messages stored on his Samsung phone. We’re well-versed in the dangers of sexting but the twist here is that the text messages were pre-loaded onto the handset so they weren’t even his.
“I said, ‘That’s ridiculous, why would I cheat?’ There’s things I believe about relationships… The first is that if you are in a relationship, you don’t cheat,” says Darren, 49. “I said, ‘You’re being ridiculous.’ She said, ‘No I’m not, here’s the proof.’ “
Let’s put aside the fact that she was snooping through his phone and suggest that Darren P’s girlfriend was right to be upset at discovering the suggestive text messages. “Where u at,” and “Be there soon” could be taken fairly innocently, but “Booty call” perhaps less so. A little bit of further snoopery and a dash of phone-savvy would surely have revealed these to be template messages. But the lady in question was having none of it and unceremoniously kicked Darren out.
“For people who don’t know the technology, these things can be severely misconstrued,” Darren points out. “I’d like to see the phones recalled and the messages taken off, so that others don’t have to go through the hell I’m going through.”
Darren launched a quest to clear his name: he called Virgin Mobile who told him to provide a written complaint. Undeterred, he visited the Future Shop in Winnipeg and together with the staff established that other phones of the same model came with the same messages. One of the Future Shop staff commented, “We all felt horrible… He basically has to start his life over again.”
While we have an inkling that all was not well in the Darren P household to begin with, we’re not sure in which universe the inclusion of template ‘Booty call’ text messages is really a good idea? The very least you can do in your drunken, lusty state is type the message yourself.
[Source: Winnipeg Free Press via Metro.co.uk]
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