Family Wants To Short-Circuit Harasser

Authorities say they’re baffled by a high-tech harasser who has been tormenting an Ontario family for months, tinkering with their electricity and disrupting their phone calls.

Since December, the Tamai family’s phone has been tapped, calls have been interrupted by strange voices and power to the home is sometimes cut off. The electronic intruder, who distorts his voice with the help of a computer, calls himself Sommy and has even been able to switch channels on the family’s television.

This week, Debbie and Dwayne Tamai and their 15-year-old son decided to make their plight public, hoping to produce new leads and put more pressure on investigators to solve the case.

“It’s probably falling in to what Sommy wants, but the only way to get the investigation going is to bring as much attention to it as possible,” said the family’s lawyer, Don Tait.

Ontario’s attorney general, Bob Runciman, said he has been assured that police and telephone company officials are doing everything possible to catch Sommy. Debbie Tamai received 32 calls from the media Tuesday, including one from the TV tabloid show Inside Edition.

“We wanted to go public so we could get some help for our problem, but we never expected this.”

The investigation has included extensive interviews with neighbors, friends and close scrutiny of the Tamai family. They’ve been cleared as suspects, and the house has been rewired three times.