The number for a phone sex line ended up on a flyer for the Lake County Sheriff's Office.
The number was mistakenly listed as a hotline for victims of sexual assault and domestic violence. The flyers were handed out to crime victims for years.
A victim of domestic violence had one of the flyers from the Sheriff's Office. When she called the hotline number, she received a message she didn't expect to hear.
"Welcome to America's hottest talk line. Ladies, to talk to interesting and exciting guys, free, press 1 now," the message said.
The Sheriff's Office has distributed thousands of these flyers with a sex hotline in place of a hotline for sexual abuse victims.
Kelly Smallridge, director of Haven, an organization that provides services for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, only found out about the flyers after a victim reported it.
"I was shocked and stunned. I had never seen that number before," said Smallridge. "We have no 1-800 numbers. As long as I've worked with this agency we haven't had a 1-800 number."
Initially, the Sheriff's Office wasn't sure how they got the number. But an investigator searched Google for the phone number with the word Haven, and found a listing that did associate the number with Haven.
"We hate it that a number on our paperwork wasn't going to the proper service, but we printed what we were given," said a spokesman for the Sheriff's Office.
The address next to the phone number is for the former rape crisis center that Haven now runs.
Smallridge said that address has not been used in about 20 years.
The Sheriff's Office has now printed out new flyers with the number for the sex hotline removed.
The Sheriff's Office said even though it gave out the flyers to assault victims, a victim's advocate is also assigned to personally contact each victim to ensure that person gets help.
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