Hundreds of burrito-seeking people have mistakenly inundated the cell phone of a D.C.-area lawyer after a Chipotle giveaway listed a phone number only one digit different from his.
On Monday, Chipotle announced a free burrito promotion as they opened their restaurants late for a safety meeting. Entrants simply had to text the word "raincheck" to 888-222. Yes, that's a six-digit number.
But lawyer Hank Levine -- who, ironically, specializes in telecommunications -- has a seven-digit number very similar to the one that the burrito chain publicized.
And so the texts started coming.
"I got the first text and it was just the text with the words 'rain check,'" Levine said. "I texted back with a question mark. And the person texted back, 'I want my burrito.'"
The Chipotle fan explained what was going on, and Levine soon realized it wasn't going to end there.
"I said 'Gee, this could be a problem maybe,'" said Levine, a resident of Bethesda.
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He soon began getting about 15 texts an hour, then a text was coming in every minute or two -- all in all, he's gotten more than 350 of them.
Levine has tried to respond to the senders.
"Mostly they've been sympathetic or polite or funny," he said. He said Chipotle has been apologetic for his inconvenience and are sending him free coupons. In the meantime, although the promotion has ended, he's continuing to respond to most of the texts he's gotten.
"I've learned a lot of things about Chipotle," he said, "and the most interesting thing by far is that people really hate being charged for guacamole."
