A man has received phone calls from the number of his grandparents, who are unaccounted for following the Florida building collapse.
He says that there have been numerous calls from their landline inside their sunken condo, according to WBLG.
Jake Samuelson told his local news outlet that he had received 16 eerie calls from his missing grandparent’s number.
Arnie and Myriam Notkin were residents of the Florida building that collapsed Thursday morning suddenly.
The Notkins were in their 80s, living in apartment 302 in the Champlain Towers South. Arnie, 87, was a physical education teacher and Myriam, 81, is a banker and real estate agent, the station said.
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When Samuelson answered the phone calls, he heard nothing but static each time, with the first call coming through Thursday night, WBLG said.
“We were all sitting there in the living room, my whole family, Diane, my mother, and we were just shocked,” Samuelson told the outlet. “We kind of thought nothing of it because we answered, and it was static.”
Samuelson said his family last received a call from the number on Friday night — they received 15 total calls from the number on Friday. Any efforts to dial the number resulted in a call busy signal.
“We are trying to rationalize what is happening here; we are trying to get answers,” Samuelson told the TV station.
The building collapse has now left at least nine people dead and dozens unaccounted for. The victims discovered Sunday morning have been identified, and their next of kin have been notified.
A report recently surfaced that the building was deemed to be unstable, according to researchers from Florida International University.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency on Thursday following the building’s fall. This brought in the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other federal assistance, such as the Army Corps of Engineers. Families have already been registered for individual aid, FEMA director Deanne Criswell said on Sunday, NBC News reported.
As for now, Samuelson is expecting detectives to reach out to the family about the strange calls that have been gut-wrenching for the family. Like so many others, they are also waiting to hear about the whereabouts of their loved ones.
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