Verizon reassigned Sir Mix-A-Lot's old phone number — and the new owner is getting hilarious texts

When Jonathan Nichols, 33, started looking for a job in Seattle, he wanted to get a new phone number so his area code would be local when he gave it out to potential employers. At first, Nichols thought his phone number was just like any other, The Seattle Times reports. He had no idea that Verizon would end up assigning him the digits that used to belong to Sir Mix-A-Lot, the rapper known for his 1992 hit "Baby Got Back."

The clues trickled in slowly. First came a text with a link to a video of a guy making beats on a synthesizer — odd, but not immediately a tipoff. Next came a flood of calls from luxury car dealers like Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Jaguar, asking "Mr. Anthony Ray" to come and take a test drive. And then there was the fateful day in August when Nichols' phone started "blowing up off the hook":

Reached by The Seattle Times for comment, the real Anthony Ray reacted to Nichols' story by saying, "Are you serious? That is hilarious. Poor fella."

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Ray had some advice for his old phone number's new owner, too. "Don't check any text messages in front of your wife... [and] tell him any really sexy pictures — little in the middle, and if she's got much back — give them the new number."

Read the full story at The Seattle Times.