I read this great little story in The Fortean Times last night. FT251, July 2009, p.77. Author is Darren Ryden:
“In the 80s a friend of mine decided to go hitchhiking around Europe, and on the way call in on some friends in Italy. After a row at work, he quit his job early and started travelling two weeks earlier than he had originally planned. One night, during a heavy downpour in Germany, he took shelter in a phone kiosk. The telephone rang and, having nothing better to do, he answered it, expecting to hear someone speaking German.
To his suprise, it was our mutual friend in Italy calling to check some arrangement on meeting up. It transpired our Italian friend, not knowing about his early depature, has simply dialled his home phone number and had somehow been connected to that particular public phone.
Our Italian friend phoned me straight after to check that this wasn’t a hoax and that our friend was indeed abroad, which I confirmed. To this day, none of us knows how it happened. Misdial a number and the odds of picking up a particular phone in another country must be infinitesimal.”