ORLANDO (CBSMiami) – You’d think a big company like T-Mobile would be smarter than to thank a brand new customer by giving him the former cellphone number of someone who canceled it because of all the hate calls it was getting. But T-Mobile did just that, when it handed out the phone number given up by George Zimmerman.

Junior Alexander Guy had an eye-opening experience when he activated his first cellphone, and the hate calls started rolling in almost immediately.

Someone published the phone number when it belonged to Zimmerman as the controversy over his shooting of Trayvon Martin inflamed passions around the country.

Callers heaped insults on Zimmerman, and even made death threats. When he inherited Zimmerman’s phone number, he inherited all of the vitriol.

After getting about 70 cars in the first week he owned the phone, he gave it to a lawyer and demanded T-Mobile pay him for his trouble. No way, said the phone company, but it did credit his bill and gave him a new phone number.

It also permanently blacklisted Zimmerman’s old phone number, something Guy is probably wondering why the company didn’t do in the first place.

Now, would be hate callers get a message saying the number is out of service.