It’s an occupational hazard for journalists and photographers – thatinsistent ringing of the telephone at unearthly hours of the night summoningyou to the back of beyond all in the line of duty.

So when Ian Hodgkinson, the newest photographer at the Burton Mail, waswoken by his newly-installed phone ringing some time after midnight, hethought he knew what to expect.

It seemed he was right because the voice on the other end clearly wanted himto attend a scene at a far-distant roadside.

But as the call went on, the still-sleepy photographer became increasinglyconfused. It was not the newsdesk after all, but a motorist who wanted Ianto deal with his broken-down car.

Try as he might to insist that he was a Mail man and not a mechanic, thecaller was adamant that he had phoned the Burton-based out-of-hourstelephone number for a Derby breakdown recovery service. It was ten minutesbefore the caller finally gave up.

A check in the Yellow Pages next morning revealed that the stranded motoristwas right. Ian had been given the same number as a 24-hour recovery service.

Fulsome apologies from BT and a swift number change followed, which meantthat Ian had to contact all his friends and family with a second new numberin little over a week.

A few days later, when Ian received another late night call he assumed itmust be a real call-out at last.

And the opening line from the caller? “Hello, is that the LittlewoodsDistribution Centre?”

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