In the early 1990s, a peculiar phone number began capturing the attention of Canadian teenagers, particularly in Ontario. 1-800-GOLF-TIP became one of the earliest internet era mysteries despite originating in the pre-internet age. What makes this case particularly fascinating is how a simple toll-free number transformed into an enduring urban legend that would captivate internet sleuths for nearly three decades. The mystery first appeared in 1993 when the number was referenced in the Charlatan, a Carleton University student newspaper. The number gained notoriety not through online channels, which were still in their infancy, but through word of mouth and billboard advertisements. One of the most compelling aspects of the mystery was the extensive advertising campaign behind it. Multiple sources confirmed that the number was promoted through large, brightly colored billboards in various Ontario cities. These billboards featured typical golf imagery and bold lettering spelling out 1-800-GOLF-TIP. One city that was of particular interest was St. Catharines as they had a substantially larger population that played golf. This fact made the advertisement effort seem much more professionally executed and with precise intent. Print advertisements also appeared in major newspapers. The Tampa Tribune published a notice on December 3rd, 1994 stating, "Golfers nationwide can receive golf tips today and Sunday via toll-free instruction hotline presented by the PGA of America and USA Today." Another reference appeared in USA Today on December 1st, 1994 identifying the number as the USA Today and PGA of America hotline. These advertisements indicated that the hotline featured nearly 100 PGA members and was being offered in conjunction with the Tommy Armour PGA Teaching and Coaching Summit in New Orleans. For those unaware, Tommy was a legendary Scottish-American golfer who won three major championships and became one of golf's most prominent instructors in the 1950s. When people dialed the number expecting golf instruction, they encountered something entirely different and unsettling. According to virtually all first-hand accounts, callers heard a male voice with an accent counting from 1 to 10 in English. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 The counting followed a repetitive pattern where it went from 1 to 6 before pausing and continuing from 7 to 10. However, accounts differ slightly regarding exactly where the pause occurred. Some callers distinctly remember the pause after five, others after six, and still others insisted came after seven. One Reddit user who extensively researched the mystery stated, "I distinctly remember it happening after the seventh. I used to try to mimic his voice perfectly." This looping recording would continue for approximately 10 to 12 minutes. The voice would simply repeat the counting sequence over and over without variation or explanation. After the extended counting period, the line would fall completely silent. Then came what many described as the most disturbing element of the call. After the silence, a loud, jarring siren sound would suddenly blast through the receiver. Some callers described it as a scream while others characterized it as a synthetic alarm or siren. This unexpected noise served as a jump scare for callers and seared itself into the minds of many teenagers. To my knowledge, there exists only one known authentic recording of the call, which is the audio that you have all been hearing. This recording was allegedly captured in 1994 by a user known as Peabody, who recorded it directly from their telephone receiver. A significant breakthrough in the investigation came when researchers identified the siren sound in the recording. It was determined to be the original no such number tone, also known as the crybaby tone, created by Bell Telephone Laboratories in 1941. Bell Labs designed it to signal to callers that they had reached an unassigned or disconnected number. The unsettling quality of the sound is caused by a capacitor charging and discharging to vary the frequency of a relaxation oscillator, creating a non-linear frequency that produces a reedy crying quality. The phenomenon became something of a dare among Canadian teenagers as its notoriety spread. Unlike pranks or horror content that have clear intentions, the phone number seemed to serve no discernible purpose. It wasn't selling anything, it wasn't entertainment, and it didn't provide the promised golf tips. This absence of a clear motive made it more mysterious than if it had been an obvious prank. Some speculated the number might be related to number stations, which are shortwave radio broadcasts that transmit sequences of numbers, widely believed to carry encrypted messages for spies using one-time pad encryption. The similarity of hearing an accented voice reading numbers seemed to support this theory. However, the billboard advertising and toll-free accessibility made this unlikely as actual number stations are designed for anonymity and secrecy. Others theorized it could be a psychological experiment or even an attempt at mass manipulation. The repetitive counting and the compelling urge teenagers felt to call it suggested possible social engineering. However, no evidence ever emerged to support these more fantastical theories. Some proposed that someone had set up the phone number for a legitimate project, created the counting as a test message, but then a wealthy rival purchased billboard advertising to drive up call volume and bankrupt the original owner. While intriguing, this theory lacked any supporting evidence. Another group suspected it might be an elaborate marketing campaign or guerrilla advertising for an unknown product or service. The billboard placement seemed to support this, but no product or payoff ever materialized. Given that the number later became associated with phone services, some wondered if it had always been intended as a bait and switch to adult content. However, historical newspaper references to legitimate PGA golf content refuted this theory. As the internet matured in the 2000s and 2010s, the mystery found new life online. Despite being a phenomenon from the pre-internet 1990s, it became one of the earliest internet mysteries because the story survived primarily through word-of-mouth accounts that migrated to digital forums. First-hand accounts began appearing on various platforms as early as 2003. A dedicated website named after the number was created specifically to collect memories and solve the mystery. Additionally, multiple Reddit threads emerged, particularly on r/rbi and unsolved mysteries. One user named Oh I Get Jokes became particularly dedicated to investigating the mystery, conducting extensive research, and documenting findings in detail posts between 2018 and 2022. At some point after extensive investigation, it was revealed in the 1-800 database that the number was updated on January 20th, 1998 with ownership listed under a company called Mayfair Communications. This date is significant because it was five years after the 1993 reference in the Charlatan student newspaper, indicating the number had already been in circulation well before Mayfair acquired it. Mayfair Communications was traced to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. However, the company appeared suspicious for several reasons. Multiple scam reports were associated with the company and Mayfair had no official website, which was unusual for a telecommunications company. The company's ownership and operations were also difficult to verify. Further investigation revealed that Mayfair Communications was likely taken over by another company called Primtel Communications, also located in Philadelphia. Primtel never updated the 1-800 directory record, but searches for Mayfair Communications would return Primtel results on the first page of Google. This discovery proved critically important. Primtel Communications, founded in 1995 by Richard Cohen and Sandra Kessler, has a notorious reputation in the telecommunications industry. It was well known for hoarding massive quantities of toll-free telephone numbers. By 2010, Primtel's six responsible organizations operated nearly 2 million of the approximately 8 million possible 800 numbers, plus millions more in other toll-free area codes. Their holdings were said to be worth an estimated $1 billion. Primtel's business model involves acquiring toll-free numbers as soon as they expire or become available, then redirecting them to erotic chat lines operated by National A1, an affiliated company. This practice has resulted in significant embarrassment when formerly legitimate business numbers suddenly become adult content lines. Interestingly, while the hoarding of toll-free numbers is technically prohibited by federal regulations, the Federal Communications Commission has never taken formal action against Primtel or National A1. This ownership trail explained why modern callers attempting to dial the golf tip number encounter phone services. Primtel acquired the expired number and redirected it according to their standard business practice. Multiple sources strongly warn against calling the number today to avoid connecting to such services and having your caller ID captured. After nearly 30 years of speculation, it seemed that the mystery had come to a head. When examining the advertisements, it was indicated that the golf ads were only intended to be active for Saturday and Sunday, December 3rd and 4th of 1994, specifically ending at 9:00 p.m. This was meant to be a short-term promotional service, not a permanent operation. However, evidence suggests the number may have remained in some form of operation beyond this initial weekend. Additional advertisements for golf tips were discovered from December 1996, 2 years after the supposed end date. This discrepancy could indicate either that the service was extended, that advertisements continued running after the service ended, or that researchers have encountered date inaccuracies in their investigation. The most compelling first-hand explanation came from a comment on the Payphone Project article, allegedly from someone with direct knowledge of the operation. According to this account, the commenter's Lebanese uncle, not Indian as many assumed from the accent, worked or volunteered for the PGA around 1995. The account explains that PGA members decided to pay for a hotline where callers could receive golf tips from approximately 100 PGA members attending the Tommy Armour Teaching and Coaching Summit in New Orleans. The line was active for about a week until the board received a massive bill for all the toll-free calls made during that period. No one wanted to pay the disputed bill, and it remained in dispute for years. The counting recording was the uncle's test message created when initially setting up the line. At the time, establishing such a hotline required recording numerous prompts to direct callers to press different numbers for different services. This test recording of him counting was meant to be temporary, simply checking that the recording system worked properly. When the bill dispute arose, the phone company removed all the prompts and deactivated the interactive features, but the system defaulted to the initial test recording. The uncle originally lived in Canada and his credit and address were based there, which is why he volunteered to apply for the account. After the phone company deemed the number out of service on paper, they paid no attention to the voicemail that millions of people continued to hear. The commenter also noted an interesting technical detail. They said, "If you called the number in certain regions in Canada, you would hear him counting, and if you didn't hang up, you'd hear a screech that was actually the original recording being rewound." This explains the siren sound. It wasn't actually the previously mentioned crybaby tone in every case, but rather the mechanical sound of the tape system rewinding combined with or replaced by the standard telephone no such number tone. Despite the compelling solution, some aspects of the mystery remain murky or disputed. The single known recording attributed to the number, the Peabody recording from 1994, cannot be definitively verified as authentic. Multiple recreations and imitations exist online, making it difficult to confirm which version, if any, is the original. There are also timeline discrepancies. The 1993 reference in the Charlotte student newspaper predates the December 1994 PGA USA Today hotline launch. This could mean the number existed for a different purpose before the PGA hotline, or the newspaper reference is incorrectly dated in digital archives. While the comment on the Payphone Project article provides the most detailed and plausible explanation about the Lebanese uncle, it remains an anonymous internet comment that cannot be fully verified. It could be accurate insider knowledge, a well-informed theory presented as fact, or even an elaborate fabrication. Researchers have also questioned why the phenomenon was primarily remembered in Ontario, Canada, rather than throughout the United States if it was promoted by USA Today and the PGA of America. The Lebanese uncle account explains this through the Canadian billing address, but questions remain about the campaign's actual geographic scope. Additionally, researchers found other unrelated phone numbers featuring very similar counting recordings. This could indicate a common practice among phone companies of using counting recordings for test purposes, the same template recording being used across multiple telecommunications providers, or different iterations of the same system being deployed in various regions. Doctor Gloves refers to a disturbing and extensively investigated internet mystery that seemed to have surfaced around 2014. An unidentified individual using the pseudonym Master began uploading original photographs to various forums and websites, including Death Addict and 4chan. Eventually, the internet gave the user the name Doctor Gloves due to his distinctive surgical attire that he wore and, most distinctively, what appears to be a black rubber mask that completely obscures his face. Most of the photographs are extremely graphic, so most likely what you all will be seeing are heavily censored versions. The earliest possible date for the photographs has been established as 2014 based on a crucial piece of evidence visible in one of the images, a laptop which has been determined to be an HP Stream Professional that was released in 2014 and discontinued within a few years. This laptop appears in the background of one of the morgue photographs, providing investigators with a minimum time frame for when the images were created. Investigators have categorized the photographs into several distinct series, each taken in different locations within what appears to be medical facilities. The first series of photographs was taken in a location now dubbed the walk-in cooler by internet sleuths. These images show Doctor Gloves mishandling organs and fetal remains. In one photo, he was seen holding what appeared to be three organs on what was later identified as a residential cooking pan. One Reddit post that was created in May 2022 by a user named Wayward Koala pointed out interesting details that can be seen scattered throughout the various photo posts by Doctor Gloves. One part of the post reads, "There have been some murmurings that his name is Edvin Balyeavs, although I highly doubt this for reasons I'll get into shortly. The majority of photos show his arms and hands wearing surgical gloves, although a few of the photos show his body from the neck down. In the photo showing his head, he is wearing a black rubber mask, possibly a mask. He is a heavier-set white male who is probably between 30 and 45 years old. I haven't tried to figure his height out, but he looks to be between 5 ft 8 and 5 ft 11 in tall. From the photos, it's obvious that DG has ready access to both living children and remains, so it seems likely that he's working in a hospital. Some people say he is a child mortician, although the extent of his contact with the living children makes me question this assumption. Personally, I think he is a physician. He could be a nurse, but having access to a room where he could comfortably put on a mask and pose with children seems unlikely for a nurse. In some photos, he is wearing scrubs, most photos, he is wearing a dress shirt. In one photo, he is seen wearing dress shoes with slacks and nicer socks. Again, this would be odd for a nurse. For similar reasons, I think it's unlikely he is a CNA, patient care technician, or pathologist assistant. There is also the question of the gloves. Why is he wearing surgical gloves to interact with the children in the hospital setting instead of normal exam gloves? Not only is this impractical and unnecessary, but it also seems wasteful to be changing surgical gloves between patients, which would be SOP. Electrical outlets in the photos place the facility in the US or Canada. There's been some talk that he is employed at a children's hospital in California, but I can't find any evidence pointing to California over some other state. I also think it's worth keeping an open mind to the possibility that the photos were taken at different locations. The photos appear to be taken in three different locations. I'll call them the morgue, the hospital, and the office, and go into some detail on each. One, the morgue. Photos from the morgue are mostly of him posing and playing with the remains of stillborn and severely premature fetuses. The room itself appears old and dilapidated. There are some appliances and cabinetry in the room, as well as a storage closet. Despite how shabby the room appears, I think it is actually being used as a morgue or autopsy suite, and it's not just some storage closet he goes to for the sole purpose of doing what he does. There is a window in the room that appears to be frosted, but it's only visible in one photo. However, its reflection is visible in the tile of the adjacent wall in one photo. I think the name badge with Edvin Balyeavs is photoshopped. First, why would Doctor Gloves go through the trouble of putting on a mask if he's going to leave his name badge in plain view? Second, the shape of the badge doesn't make sense even if it is pressed up against the table. The hospital. To preface this, I am using the word hospital loosely. I don't think all of the photos were taken in the same place since some of the children are obviously in a long-term care facility. The children being in an LTC facility would line up with the specialized beds and chairs, and most of the children have tracheostomies without NG feeding tubes. There is also a photo showing a seemingly normal newborn sleeping in a standard hospital bassinet. So, if the photos were taken at the same facility, they probably do both acute and LTC. The office. These photos are probably the most disturbing and depict child The photos from the office feature a young girl who appears to be under 5 years old. She isn't hooked up to any tubing or medical equipment, which makes me wonder if the photos were taken in a residence or somewhere outside of the main facility. I think the office photos are taken at his home or some other location. The doors molding, rocker light switch, and cable TV hookup all seem like things you wouldn't see in a hospital setting. On top of those things, the child in the office photos does not appear in any of the other photos and appears normal and healthy. Plus, picking a young girl up by her hair would undoubtedly elicit a scream that would attract attention. Conclusion. I would appreciate any input y'all have about this case. The FBI has allegedly been notified and said nothing is illegal in the photos. I think it's possible to approximate a location based on the type of facility alone, but I hope there's something in these photos that will help narrow things down. Another detail of interest is the number and letter 37B visible on the wall above a fire extinguisher. Fire code experts determined that this number is often associated with fire codes and fire extinguisher locations, with 37B likely appearing on facility maps as the location of one of the extinguishers. Another image showed the numbers 329 with a biohazard symbol, which investigators believe was actually 3291, the medical code for medical waste. These details provided strong evidence that the morgue was part of a functioning hospital rather than an abandoned facility. One of the most notable identifying characteristics is Dr. Gloves' supposedly remarkably small hands. He wore size six surgical gloves, which is unusually small for an adult male. Different sources claim that either size 7 to 8 is the standard for men's surgical gloves. This characteristic could potentially help narrow down the suspect pool among medical facility employees as this sort of detail is not easily concealed. One of the central questions in the investigation has been determining Dr. Gloves' professional role and how he gained access to restricted areas of medical facilities. Many investigators initially believed he might be a physician given his apparent comfort in hospital settings. Some argued that his dress attire, dress shoes, slacks, nicer socks, and dress shirts in some photos suggested a doctor rather than a nurse, as a nurses typically wear scrubs. Additionally, he appeared to have the freedom to comfortably put on a mask and pose with remains without fear of immediate discovery. A particularly compelling theory suggested by an ICU nurse on Reddit is that Dr. Gloves might be a respiratory therapist. In this nurse's experience, respiratory therapists wear turquoise scrubs, which are visible in some of the photographs. Respiratory therapists would have legitimate access to ventilator wards where medically compromised children receive care, which would explain his presence in those areas without raising suspicion. Early speculation suggested he might be a child mortician, but investigators quickly dismissed this theory. First, a child mortician isn't actually a recognized profession. Mortuaries handle deceased individuals of all ages. More importantly, while this might explain his access to deceased infants and fetuses, it doesn't account for his extensive contact with living children in hospital settings. Given that autopsies on deceased infants are typically mandatory, Dr. Gloves may have been a lab technician, pathologist assistant, or someone responsible for transporting bodies to the autopsy room and morgue. These positions would provide access to deceased remains while potentially allowing movement through other areas of a hospital. Others have suggested that he may also be a janitor or maintenance worker since these staff members typically have access to nearly every area of the hospital. It's also possible that Dr. Gloves was never an official member of the hospital staff, but instead worked for a third-party service provider. Contract workers, such as those employed by mortuary services, medical waste management companies, lab services, or transport companies would have legitimate access to restricted areas without being directly employed by the hospital. This would explain his ability to move through multiple locations and might make him harder to identify through standard employee records. Another theory pauses that Dr. Gloves could have been a medical student. Medical students rotate through various departments and typically have supervised access to diverse areas of teaching hospitals, which could explain his presence in multiple locations. One of the early breakthroughs in the investigation was pinpointing Dr. Gloves' location to be in the US or Canada as previously mentioned. Further deep dives suggested that he may be located in California, specifically somewhere in the south. This possibility was brought up due to the presence of the fire extinguisher. Its particular brand is manufactured specifically in Southern California. When analyzing the hospital bed sheets, blankets, and other linens in the photographs, investigators were able to match specific brands and patterns to those used by particular hospital chains. One blanket described as having orange six-pointed stars and an elephant emblem was made by Dignity Health Mother and Baby, which greatly narrowed down the possible facilities. The same goes for cross-referencing pieces of equipment such as ventilators, beds, and more. Collectively, all of these seemingly small details pointed toward a major hospital system rather than a smaller institution. Through this exhaustive process of elimination, investigators eventually focused on Glendale Memorial Health Foundation, a hospital operated by Dignity Health in Glendale, California. Multiple pieces of evidence pointed to this specific facility or others in the Dignity Health network in the greater Glendale and Southern California area. Around July of 2025, an investigative website called Who Is Dr. Gloves stated that Dr. Gloves had been definitively identified. However, no name has been publicly released and there is no confirmation of any arrest being made. Interestingly, it was mentioned that more than one person may have been involved in the entire scheme. This ties back to another theory that was developed by investigators referred to as the two-man theory. Several photographs show both of Dr. Gloves' hands occupied in a manner that would make it impractical or impossible for him to be operating the camera simultaneously. This observation led investigators to theorize that at least one accomplice was present during the photography sessions, either taking the pictures or assisting in other ways. As of October 2025, the previously mentioned website has also confirmed that they have successfully identified the morgue location, thanks to tipsters with knowledge of Dignity Health facilities. The site has also confirmed that images were taken at a Dignity Health facility in Southern California. Today, the case appears to be nearing resolution. The San Bernardino Police Department has described this as an active and ongoing investigation. The fact that portions of the investigative website have been taken offline at law enforcement's request suggests the investigation has reached a critical stage where publicly available information might jeopardize prosecution. So, it seems that now it is just a matter of waiting.