Woman got Paris Hilton’s old phone number, plus hassles

LOS ANGELES – For months, Shira Barlow’s cell phone was flooded with wrong-number calls and text messages, mostly between 2 and 4 a.m. on weekends. Told they had reached a college student, callers refused to believe it.

“Baby girl, how are you?” one man purred in a foreign accent. “Why are you doing this?” a woman asked. “This is so rude.” And there were several seemingly random references to “Paris.”

As in Paris Hilton.

Barlow’s story began on Valentine’s Day during a night out with friends. She was carrying her phone in a back pocket when it fell into a toilet. When she replaced it, her wireless company insisted on assigning the San Francisco native a new number with a 310 area code rather than 415.

Barlow had been given a recycled phone number that used to be Hilton’s.

Just after Barlow got her new phone, close to Hilton’s Feb. 17 birthday, a flurry of calls and texts arrived. “Oh my God,” one caller said. “Where’s the party?”

Then came the day Hilton was sentenced to jail. Messages about parties were replaced by dozens expressing condolences.

“People were scared for her,” Barlow said.

Barlow plans to keep the number because she says it has been a greater source of amusement than a hassle.

“It was really out of convenience,” she added. “I didn’t want to switch again.”