Owning Elon Musk’s old phone number is a real headache

When the Tesla CEO makes news, this woman is sometimes the first to hear about it.

Photo: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images

Owning Elon Musk’s old phone number is a real headache

Other than Grimes and, er, X Æ A-12, no one bears the brunt of Elon Musk’s controversies as much as Lyndsay Tucker.

The 25-year-old skin care consultant, who spoke to NPR this week, has the misfortune of owning Musk’s old phone number. 

And whenever a new tweet from the Tesla CEO hits the news, a deluge of Musk fans and acquaintances, plus some reporters, sets her cell abuzz.

Even on normal days, Tucker gets about 3 messages meant for Musk, including one person who texted her blueprints to build a bionic limb and a call from the IRS (which had just a few tax questions). 

Keeping up with the Musks? It’s a lot of work

Tucker has never met Musk, and until she got the new phone number around 2 years ago, she had no idea who he was.

Tucker didn’t understand the gravity of the situation until she spoke to her mom. When she mentioned she’s been getting texts meant for someone named “Elon Musk,” her mom’s jaw dropped.

But now she is resigned to keeping tabs on all of the CEO’s latest antics — it’s the only way she can prepare for the onslaught of texts she’s about to receive. 

She told NPR, “Whenever I see his name pop up in the news, I’m like, ‘OK, I have to actually learn what he said because, chances are, someone is going to message me about it or call me about it.’”

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