Sure, you could be outside getting sunburn and mosquito bites and firework-induced anxiety, but isn’t it more your style to stay in a cool, dark room all day and call a fictional conspiracy theorist’s home phone number? If you want to fit in both, don’t worry. We called Murray Bauman’s phone number, as revealed in episode 6 of Netflix’s Stranger Things Season 3 and, as it turns out, it’s a real number leading to a very real fake answering machine message.
“If this is anyone but my mother or Joyce, well, you think you’re real clever, getting my number, don’t ya†Brett Gelman’s private detective character chuckles. “You’re not clever. You’re not special. You are just simply one of the many, many nimwits to have called here.†Even better, the area code for the number (which is 618-625-8313, in case you want to give it a go yourself) corresponds to southern Illinois, Sesser to be more specific. Concludes Bauman, “Hang up and never call here again! You are a parasite!â€