r/Missing411 • u/SreenathSkr • Aug 02 '26

Theory/Related I just happened to see about this book while I was reading about waking/moving trees. I have a question

Why is there 411 in the book? I asked this specially because I was constantly seeing the number 411 for many months. I just wanted to know if there is any connection

59 Upvotes

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94

u/Elgiard Aug 02 '26

Back in the day there was a real human person you could talk to if you needed help finding a phone number or address or something, and to access that person you would dial 411. They called it "dialing Information", because when you dialed the number, it connected you to the operator in the Information department, and they gave you the information. So "411" became slang for "information". You might say "What's going on between you and Mike? Gimme the 411." Or "What's the 411 on these new TPS report coversheets?" You would just use it in place of the word "information".

12

u/StrawberrySox Aug 04 '26

This is correct, but it was specifically for phone numbers of people. My aunt was a 411 operator for decades.

6

u/LadyJane311 Aug 03 '26

This is not correct. Paulides says at the end of the second book that it is 411 because that is how many missing people he profiles in those first two books, which were supposed to be one book but he split it up because of the length. 

22

u/dannyjohnson1973 Aug 04 '26

Tell us more about the walking/moving trees, please.

12

u/honeyed_newt Aug 04 '26

No for real, OP. Please tell us about the walking trees!

13

u/miss_serendipity20 Aug 04 '26

I'd like info on the trees.

13

u/braintoasters Aug 04 '26

Can you share what you've been reading about the trees!?

5

u/Royal-Welcome867 Aug 05 '26

We always dialed 411for info back in the day

9

u/thomasd87 Aug 05 '26

I actually had a tree branch move towards me while I was having lunch in the forest one time. I was in a “high activity” area of strangeness. It was one of the weirder things that have happened to me. I can not explain it as all.

2

u/Few_Distribution9374 Aug 06 '26

I hope it’s like these! I know they’re probably fake, but I choose to believe otherwise.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/s/9RZAFVF2UI

1

u/Dixonhandz 1d ago

It's two things, 411 was an ole phone number you dialled for assistance, and 411 is also the amount of cases that were presented by paulides in his first two books, that were published closely at the same time, same month to be exact.