There’s petty … and then there’s this guy.
WXII reports a North Carolina man named Omar Khouri dragged a bunch of telemarketers to court and is sticking it to these headache-makers by opening a bar with the settlement money. Khouri, who hails from Winston-Salem, named his business The Wrong Number.
“I get so many phone calls every day for car warranties, debt relief, student loans … life insurance,” he said. Khouri, who works in IT and is on the Do Not Call registry, had a little more time on his hands when the pandemic hit. So, he decided to tangle with the telemarketers who made the mistake of calling him.
“I didn’t really have anything else to do because I’m stuck at home,” he said. “So I started answering the calls and talking to them and answering their questions enough to figure out who they are and then I was able to go after them.”
The ruse allowed him to go after at least 30 telemarketers and secure a settlement from them. “When I last counted, it was just over $100,000,” he said.
Khouri used the money to purchase an old tavern, which he renovated into The Wrong Number. “The whole telemarketer thing just kind of gave me the backstory I didn’t have before,” he cracked. “So that’s how The Wrong Number came about. It’s like, ‘Hey, they called the wrong number and they had to deal with me.'”
The bar will have its soft opening in October and it will offer drinks like Car Warranty and Debt Relief.
Khouri says going after telemarketers isn’t an easy job and requires “a lot of patience.” But, he says it’s worth it.