Look, people- the police, paramedics, and firemen are busy enough as it is.
Calling 911 for stupid crap does not score you brownie points with ANYONE.
Especially if you do it 4 times for the same problem.
And that problem is a bad manicure.
Like this lady.
I've been dispatched to "about 5 kids walking down the street that the caller thinks don't belong there" (GOA), a "suspicious McDonald's bag in the street that the caller think might have a human hand in it" (Found bag; no hand), and my favorite: "a 14-year-old refusing to get out of bed for school" (told Mom to be a parent). You can't make this stuff up.
ReplyDeleteBack in The Day, the police here got called once when a lady wanted a refrigerator moved. Didn't happen.
ReplyDeleteTry working the front desk at the cop shop for a while, you meet the most fascinating people.
ReplyDeleteHad client who called 911 to find out how much his traffic fine was, and in our area, a police response is made for each 911 call coming in, well they responded and charged him with making a false report of emergency and the fine for that was major.
ReplyDeleteGenetic Lifeguard: Yo! You!! Outta the gene pool!!
ReplyDeleteI've called 911 a few times. Once because I saw a tree on fire. Once because I saw a truck on fire. Once because I saw what looked like a body laying on the side of the interstate. I never found out if it was a body or not, but the 911 operator told me that they had received several calls about that and they had dispatched someone. And I called 911 once about a....cow. Seriously, it might not have been a 911 worthy call, but I didn't know what else to do. I was driving down a city...yes a city street, and there was a huge cow, just standing in the middle of the road. It wouldn't move. I went around it (it was early so there wasn't much traffic) and called 911. I was afraid someone was going to go around the corner at a high speed and hit the cow...had no idea who else to call. They said they'd send someone.
ReplyDeleteI remember an elderly woman calling 911 just about daily for "difficulty breathing" but she would often be waiting with her coat by her door and jump into the ambulance for a ride to the hospital. Everyone figured it was because she was lonely and her son lived a few states away. It also didn't help she was on oxygen and still was smoking like 2 packs a day. One of the cops told me when they picked her up from the ER to bring her home (about a mile away), that she called 22 times in december alone.
ReplyDeleteI called 911 once when it sounded like the lady next door was being raped. She was screaming bloody murder and you could hear her out on the sidewalk. Seriously. The 911 operator on the phone could hear her screaming over the phone and told me to get away from the house since I was practically about to bust in and save her. Five police cars show up. Turns out she and her boyfriend were playing out a fantasy of his..... whoops. haha.
ReplyDeleteTotally embarrassing 911 call: I had to call 911 because the door knob to my third story attic apartment's door broke on the inside and I couldn't get out.
ReplyDeleteI believe this. I am doing my internship for my paramedic certification and this is about the norm. I am slowly losing my faith in humanity. Driving code 3 (lights and sirens across the city along with fire dept. response) for a guy who got a paper cut on his pinky finger that didn't stop bleeding though he didnt hold pressure is an example of the crap we have to put up with.
ReplyDeleteIn the city I'm in right now, some neighbors called 911 because of a woman screaming, turned out she was having a home birth.
ReplyDeleteknow your rights. note- obscure clash reference.
ReplyDeleteA few 911 calls I found on Youtube:
ReplyDeleteLady calls 911 because Burger King won't 'do it her way'.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZ12Ry-hD6I
And because they have no lemonade: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_VdaFLB2l4
And for a ride to the liquor store: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_rNLy2AHxI
(wv: exciess, as in 'there are an exicess of screwy 911 calls)
In my neck of the woods, it was a woman who called 911 because one of the policeman who had just come to her house was cute, and she wanted to ask him out. The dispatcher, for some reason, thought this was a waste of bandwidth, but the woman pointed out "Hey, it's hard finding a good man when you're in your 40s."
ReplyDeleteI mean, the woman has a point there.
(And yes, fines were involved with this incident.)
Most people don't seem to realize that you can call the police at their regular number (not 911) for non-emergencies. You can still talk to dispatch, you'll just be farther down the response-cue.
ReplyDeleteYes, you can call the non emergency number, but how many people know what that is? I don't. It's not well publicized. I guess if you're home you can have time to look it up, but if you're driving down the road you probably don't.
ReplyDeleteAround here they have billboards & tv ads giving the non-emergency number. There are also signs posted on the interstate giving the *xx for reaching Highway Patrol. Which reminds me, I haven't put in the non-emergency number into my new cell phone.
ReplyDeleteI called the regular number once when someone stole my washing machine because it wasn't an emergency but I did need a police report for the insurance but was told I had to call 911 if I wanted the police to come. I felt dumb but did. Arriving cop confirmed that's the only way to get a police response in our area. Something about having a central way to log all the calls and responses. Seems stupid to me....
ReplyDelete