Confessions by phone: Bizarre 'Sorry Line' run by 'Mr. Apology' in NYC

Leave it to a New Yorker to think of a phone line that takes anonymous confessions. This is a phone line set up so you can tell your sins and crimes without fear of retribution. This free service, which was set up by a Brooklyn man, caught the eye, or ear, of “Fox and Friends Weekend” on Sunday, March 17, 2013. Believe it or not, you confess to an answering machine, but people are doing this.

According to the New York Post Sunday, the phone line is run by a man dubbed “Mr. Apology” and it is advertised all over Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan as the “Sorry Service.” “Fox and Friends Weekend” called the number and a very serious slow talking male tells you to confess not to “God or the State” but to get your misdeeds off your chest.

The signs around town advertising this service states:

“Criminals blue collar, white collar, you have wronged people. It is to people that you must apologize, not to God. Get your misdeeds off your chest. Call APOLOGY*67 (347-201-2446)."

What is this “Mr. Apology” going to do with all the bizarre information in the form of confessions he is bound to collect? The 37-year-old man who started this wishes to remain unnamed, which is something he also urges the people who call his apology line to do, not identify yourself.

The phone line is not affiliated with “police, government, religious or any other organization.” He thinks people using this service without fear of repercussions is important. In 1980, artist Allan Bridge set up an apology line, as the original “Mr. Apology. The confessions he retrieved off his answering machine later became the contents of a book. The latest “Mr. Apology” is using the exact reprint of the original 1980's flyer from the man who conjured up the first confession phone line.

It is not known what this latest “Mr. Apology" plans to do with all this strange information he's collecting, but some of the samples he offered up to the New York Post are interesting.

Here are samples of the confessions left on the "Sorry Line:"

* Anonymous man: “I’m sorry that I got in to this really wicked, sick demented relationship with a girl. I’m 18 and she happens to be 16.”

* Anonymous woman: “I [slept with] my best friend’s boyfriend . . . and she doesn’t know.”

*Anonymous woman: “I stole something from the store and told the man f--k you, f--k you, f--k you but he never called the police. And I just wanted to say, ‘sorry.’ ”

This guy had a lot to get off his chest:

* Anonymous man: “I would like to apologize to my ex-fianceé for leaving the apartment whenever we got into an argument. For staying in the relationship longer than I should have. For threatening to leave the relationship unless she sought professional help. For. . . looking at pornographic material while laying in bed next to her, secretly on my phone. For lying about looking at pornography . . . For not being willing to work on the relationship unless it was on my terms.I also want to apologize to my cousin for leaving her alone in a strange bar while I and a friend went to get stoned.”