Two clips of Drew and Mike talking about Sommie:
Paul Livi will never forget the story of the haunted house in Emeryville, Ont. Not because the CBC network analyst believes in ghosts, but because of the scary thing that happened to the CBC.ca website.
The story on CBC Radio was terrifying. For several months in early 1997, Debbie and Dwayne Tamai of the small town of Emeryville had been terrorized by an electronic intruder.
“Sommy,” as the invisible assailant called himself, took over the Tamai’s entire house. He turned appliances on and off at will, eavesdropped on phone calls and voicemail, and caused the lights to flicker and the TV to change channels.
The media dubbed it “The Emeryville Horror,” speculating that a hacker or cyber-stalker was to blame for a haunting worthy ofPoltergeist.
Actually, it was the Tamai’s 15-year-old son, Billy.
The unhappy teen eventually confessed that he was simply flicking the basement circuit breaker and picking up extension phones to freak out his parents.
CBC Radio wasn’t the only media outlet suckered by “Sommy.” NBC and The Discovery Channel sent in teams of security experts to sweep the Tamai’s house, and the Toronto Sun included the tale in a story headlined, “Who knows what evil lurks deep in the heart of… CYBERSPACE.”
But the day Sommy’s identity was revealed, a real cyber-intruder made CBC pay for being so gullible.
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