Oklahoma native Tonia Mullins used text messages to contact a hit man to snuff out her lover’s wife. Mullins conspired with her lover, Army soldier Michael Andrew Crawford, to have his wife sent packing out of this universe. Things did not work out as planned for Mullins, fortunately.

Unfortunately for Mullins, but fortunately for us, the texts she sent remain. Here is one particularly ridiculous exchange:

Co-conspirator Robin Berry: "Well maybe I can het friend n trade something he owes me big favors anyway"
Tonia Mullins: "If I can do ne thang let me know. Robin I swear I will give the $ when it comes n … that is n no way a problem … as long as accident I."

Mullins and her friend Robin Berry had gotten no further than discussion of price before police were tipped off and the whole, silly enterprise was put to a close. An undercover agent with the Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation arrested Mullins and her co-conspirators easily. The plotters plead guilty earlier this month.

Next time, use telegrams, not text messages.

AT&T reports they experienced the largest spike in text messaging in company history on Tuesday during the election. The company reports that in the hour following the announcement that Barack Obama had won the election, text messaging traffic across its network surged about 44 percent – the highest spike in company history.

This smashed New Years Eve, which was the previous record holder. A recent Nielsen study indicates that U.S. consumers now use their cell phones for text messaging more often than for talking. In third quarter 2008 earnings, AT&T reported more than 64 billion text messages across it’s network.

A UK tile store sales clerk was fired for texting in his sick call and not using a traditional telephone. The company claimed that a phone had to be used and fired him. An employment tribunal, however, saw things differently and awarded the man almost £7,000 (over $14,000).