These fools left a message of sorts on answering machine today -- some guy kept saying 'hello? hello? hello?' I could hear whispering in background the whole time and then they finally hung up. We got sick of the constantly ringing phones in the house so we never answer the phone anymore -- shut down 'ringers' on house phones and put answering machine sound on super low so you have to be standing next to the phone to hear anything if something IS recorded.
We check the phone a few times per day to see if there's a flashing red light -- if so, we can adjust the sound and listen. People we KNOW can and will leave messages. It is SO PEACEFUL here now that we don't have from 4 - 12 of these crank calls every day of the week.