Emergency hotlines are everywhere, and people dial them just in case an emergency occurs that needs to be attended to by professionals. However, for others, that is not the case.
These people from the Reddit Community shared their weirdest and dumbest calls that appeared to be something they did not expect. Check these out!
1. Wrong Number
9-1-1 dispatcher/supervisor for 5+ years here.
We get a ton of misdials because some genius at Verizon decided it would be a good idea to have phone numbers that start with "991-"
Had a woman call because her "baby" wasn't breathing, so we gave her instructions to do CPR. Medics got there and found her doing CPR on her dog.
Had another woman call saying her cat was stuck in a tree. I just knew she wanted the fire department to come to save the cat, so I got my "that's only in movies/TV" speech ready. Then she said, "...so my husband climbed up to get the cat, and now he's stuck too."
arjayim
2. Silly Ones
One woman called sobbing because the snow plow filled in the end of her driveway that she just shoveled.
One woman called saying that every time she went outside, the frogs said something about her private part.
A man called to say his house was infested with hundreds of ant-sized dogs.
Fireworks.
One woman called because she thought her house was being shot at. She forgot about her eggs boiling on the stove, and they exploded. I wanted to give her a hug, though. She was just a little old lady.
mayaseye
3. The Silly Minor
911 dispatcher for 7 years, and this one still makes me laugh.
Me: 911, where do you need assistance?
Drunk guy: At the convenient store. This guy won't sell me beer.
Me: Ok, why not?
Drunk guy: I can't show him my ID, because I am not 21.
Me: Without an ID, the clerk can not sell a beer to you, especially if you are under age.
Drunk Guy: But other clerks let me give them money before. I told him that and he still won't take my money and sell it to me. Make him take the it!
Me: We won't force the clerk to accept your offer. And definitely won't let him sell to a minor. Do you want to wait there, so I can have an officer come talk to you in person?
Drunk Guy: Yeah, I will sit outside and wait for you.
5 minutes later, and plenty of laughing between myself and officers on the radio as to what exactly this underage and intoxicated caller would like us to do, the officers arrive to find the drunk guy sitting there waiting.
Needless to say this guy had myself and the officers scratching our heads for a bit. Gave the guy’s on the street a really good laugh, because he wouldn't give up, even when they were standing in front of him, explaining all the illegal things involved in what he was asking for.
Venethos
4. Nonsense Call
Someone called 911 and spoke Cantonese only. Since we couldn't translate, we took him to the closest hospital.
Come to find out, he needed a ride for his appointment, and we took him to the wrong hospital. Needless to say, he was pissed.
Oh gosh, that's not what 911 is for.
BostonEMT
5. Baffling Call
I was a 911 dispatcher for a short time. You get a lot of really stupid calls, usually, people who don't get the concept that 911 is for emergencies, but it's not a big deal to me unless they use an unusual amount of resources (calling a lot, faking information to get higher priority, using ambulance as a taxi, etc.)
One guy called FRANTICALLY said that he saw the dead body of a young woman in her early 20s, wearing nothing but shorts. He gave a detailed description, hair color, skin color, body position, the whole bit, and said she was by the side of the interstate (in the middle of an affluent suburban area at rush hour), so we figured this had to be a really fresh crime scene.
We started scrambling together officers to get there ASAP, a big hassle considering it's rush hour and they're all dealing with accidents and stuff like that. On top of that, we can't say what the issue is on the radio because we have too many busybodies who monitor police radio, then call us to try to get juicy details or otherwise meddle.
So we have to get these officers to their cars to read the computer, leaving other issues, etc. And these are suburban cops in the Midwest. A murder is a damn big deal.
The guy calls back a few minutes later. "Uh, I checked again, it's a dead deer."
Peeved, I announce on the radio that the trip is canceled, "it was a deer." An officer sarcastically calls back: "With shorts on?"
fludru
6. Honest One
I was sitting at work today talking to a dispatcher about this!
One of my personal favorites was someone who called, and it went like this:
"I know this is not an emergency, but there is a person in a giant monkey suit running down the road humping all the fire hydrants."
I had to hold back my laughing as best I could - it turns out he was right. When I sent the police there, there was a kid in a monkey costume humping every hydrant he came across.
Beer_
7. Weird Favors
This has happened on three separate occasions to me. A person dials 911 from the ER waiting room of one hospital, requesting an ambulance to go to another by ambulance so they don't have to wait.
I just cut off my private part, and I'm going to flush it down the toilet before you get here! (He did.)
You took my husband to the hospital, but you left his dog here, and now it has to pee. You need to come take it out. I can't walk outside.
duck_duck_chicken
8. Wasted Times, Fun Times
Many people called 911, asking about the time, school closings, and hundreds of misdials and buttdials. I also got asked out a couple of times by lonely girls calling to chat.
There were also really crazy people calling in with, "A lobster is taking advantage of me," "Sylvester Stallone lives in my pores," "My children are changelings and escaped," and "FBI is controlling me through my hats."
The funniest noncrazy story was about a really rich and affluent guy who lived in a huge house called a disheveled-looking SUV at the bottom of his huge driveway, and it wasn't the gardeners or housekeeping. The cop had to run the tags, and it turns out it belonged to his daughter, and he had bought it for her.
There was another call about a burglary, and the caller called back later, saying everything was fine and that it was the cat. So many working dispatches and call-taking.
Shumani
9. The Bob Cat
I am not a dispatcher, but I worked security at a college and fielded calls as I did my rounds.
The best story I have is about a guy who called about a bobcat in front of the library. He called up, out of breath, and said a wild cat intimidated people so they could not enter or exit the building.
I was fairly close, so I started to run over. I asked if anyone was injured, and he said no. I was expecting a group of people held up at the entrance by a huge cat hissing at everyone. I told him to keep away from it and stay on the line.
When I got there, I found a tabby cat perched on a bench.
I verified the caller and the cat he called about. I went over to the cat with him and started petting him. He rolled over and let me scratch his belly.
The guy was shocked and said, "Oh, someone has domesticated it."
Yup. I smiled and walked away.
miraclerandy
10. Just Wanna Ask Someone
Former 911 Operator here.
Had a guy call asking if it was legal to shoot his neighbor because his hedges were hanging over his property, and he considered it trespassing.
Had a woman call during a power outage asking what she should do with her steaks.
Had a guy smoke waaaay too much pot and call in, freaking out, and asking for an ambulance.
[deleted]
11. Front Desk
Once, at the hotel, I used to work for, a guest called 911 intending to reach me at the front desk. The 911 Operator called me back, saying likely the woman was a moron but asked me to go check out the room anyway.
I did, and the woman kept saying the print on the phone said to dial 911, which is correctm, but it also says to do so in an emergency. It further says to dial 0 to reach the front desk, both of which should be pretty much basic for anyone who has spent any time at all in the US.
The best part was that I could maintain my professional helpfulness and still got to see her husband just disgusted with her stupidity.
filthyruh
12. Mistake Dials
My brother called 911 multiple times just to see if it worked.
He once did it at my grandma's condo in Florida, and we didn't realize he had done it because he hung up immediately. As we were leaving to go to the beach, the police showed up and tried to find the caller, and my brother never owned up for a while.
Also, my neighbor called the cops because there was a van parked on the street near her house for a couple of hours. Turns out the driver was working on someone's house.
She called the cops again because some guy pulled up to her son while he was walking home from school and asked where house number 16 was. The kid ran all the way home because he thought the guy was going to kidnap him, and the kid claimed he saw a gun.
The "gun" was a rake, and the dude was a landscaper.
soxfan17
13. Not A Repair Shop
Family member is a 911 operator. She says on a regular basis, people will call 911 for help because their car battery died and they are locked in, not realizing there is a manual lock.
And despite not being an emergency, you can't really just hang up on them. If they are too stupid to figure it out on their own on a hot day, you will have them passing out in their car and possibly dying.
Null_Reference_
14. Two Crazy Pals
I have two that tie for the most ludicrous. First, it was not taken by me but by a co-worker. He answers the phone, and a male is screaming, "I've been stabbed in the back by my mother."
The male is crying and screaming, and it sounds like being in pain and is pretty upset. The call is started, about 15 officers racing to this guy, and meanwhile, my co-worker is trying to get further information. I can hear my co-worker asking where the knife is.
Has to ask multiple times and is starting to raise his voice when I hear him ask if the caller is kidding. Turns out the caller was confused as to why he was being asked about a knife and calmly explained, about 5 minutes into the call, that there was no knife; he had been stabbed "metaphorically in the back" by his mother.
A few of the units chose to respond very quickly and explain why this situation was not good for the caller.
The second call I actually took. It was a female insisting officers come out and arrest "her man" for refusing to make out with her. The call lasted about 10 minutes, and in that time, she cried, begged, and called me names for refusing to send an officer out.
I had to explain multiple times he could, in fact, choose not to have relations with her. Yes, he could refuse to go down on her, and if she forced him to make out, that would be taking advantage, and that, no, our officers coming out to make out with her did not fall under the motto to protect and serve.
There are so many more, but these tend to be two of the funnier stories.
quinnsyouneek
15. Devil Soup
This happened to my Uncle, not me.
They had a guy one time call in, screaming that the Devil wasn't leaving his soup. He then exclaimed, "I'm going to kill a mutha f*cka if you witches don't get it out!"
So it turns out that the guy was high on meth and is serving his 2nd prison sentence. Also, there were in fact zero devils in his soup.
johnnyhorsedick
16. A Karen
I was a 911 dispatcher for just under a year. Realized that it is NOT for me. I have a lot of respect for those people! This was in Gilbert, Arizona (if you know about this place, this story shouldn't surprise you).
The call came in from an elderly woman because a "black guy" was at the park.
I asked her what he was doing, and she said, "Nothing, he's just sitting there." So I asked her what the problem was.
Her response was, "he shouldn't be there." I almost sent the cops to her place to pick her up as a mentally unstable person.
banjoe86
17. The Missing Coat
I'm in the UK, where it's 999, but essentially the same thing. I didn't work there for very long, but I remember a really drunk lady calling up from a bar on a Sunday afternoon to tell me she couldn't find her coat.
When I told her it wasn't an emergency, she went crazy at me.
[deleted]
18. Wrong Move
My mom used to be a raging alcoholic (She had been sober for 3 years now, though! Interestingly, she got sober right when I left for college. Hmmmmm...). Anyway, one time, she was sloshed and pissed that I was watching tv and basically ignoring her.
She kept yelling at me to turn it off, and I wouldn't, so she called 911, telling them her piece of crap son wouldn't turn off the tv.
They sent a few cops over (ones that had been to our house before for similar issues), and mostly, they just talked to my little sisters about how we were doing and told us we could always call them if we needed help or support or something.
See reddit? Not all cops are jerks. These guys were great.
outofyourelementdon
19. Tutorial Operators
I was the '0' operator for a long time. During that time, many rural areas didn't have 911 service, so they would call 0 in emergencies.
I had a bunch of weird calls. I had a guy call and ask how to write a check. He just got his 1st bank account and didn't know.
Men called and asked what color our underwear was, and on Thanksgiving, we'd always get, 'How do you cook a turkey' calls.
So much so that our office had the Jenni-O Turkey toll-free number posted at every desk annually.
jakjg
20. Empty House
When I was a little boy growing up In a smallish town, I came home from school one day and found that my mom and little brother were gone. Mind you, I was in 4th grade and took the bus home, and there was always someone home when I got back from school.
So, obviously, someone had kidnapped my mom and little brother. I called 911, and the police came by. About 3 minutes after they arrived, my mom came rolling into the driveway in the car. It turns out they weren't kidnapped.
Also, on another occasion, not 911, but I came home, and they were gone again, so, crying and worried, I went to the next-door neighbor's house, who just so happened to be the chief of police and his wife. He wasn't home, but she was.
She took care of me and fed me a few Girl Scout cookies till my mom got back. Good people, those two.
Sankyu16
21. All For Nothing
My dad is a 911 operator, and they live in a town of 1,200 people, so you can imagine how boring of a job that would be.
But one night, he gets a call and a guy is stating that he's being held at gunpoint and the guy is about to shoot him. My dad is a little shocked and asks the guy if anything can prevent this from happening.
The guy seems pretty shaken up and says, "No, I think he's gonna shoot me... you better get here quick he's gonna shoot me". So my dad then asks him if there's any way he can talk to the guy holding him captive. He says, "I don't think he wants to talk to you, but hold on, I'll ask."
He puts the phone down and then picks it back up. "Yeah, he doesn't want to talk to you." My dad tried to get him to convince the captor to talk to him, but apparently, it wasn't working. So, my dad then asks for a description of the captor.
The guy says, "Well, he's tall and skinny, has some big hat on his head, and has a tail." My dad thinks - what the hell, a tail? So, at this point, he knows something is kind of fishy.
He asks the guy about the tail, and he says, "Well, it has these two metal ends that are trying to shock me" [ding ding ding!] He's describing a freaking LAMP!
At this point, the police are almost at his house. When the guy sees them pulling up, he says, "Oh crap, someone’s here. I gotta go," and hangs up. When the police entered the house, the guy was nowhere to be found. They were looking around the living room and bedrooms for him when suddenly, they heard this loud banging noise coming from the basement.
They ran downstairs, and this guy was in the bathroom, beating the fudge out of the walls with a hammer. "HE WAS IN THE WALLS."
Apparently, this guy was a recovering alcoholic in his mid-30s. And I guess a symptom of withdrawal is hallucination. I laugh my ass off every time my dad and I talk about that story, and I do feel kinda bad for that guy, though. Hopefully, the lamp left him alone after that.
rpanko
22. Misleading Information
I had a guy call me one night and tell me he had died. Obviously, I was pretty sure he was incorrect in his diagnosis, so I started questioning him. He would not tell me where he was, but I could hear him walking around (leaves underfoot and such). This was in the fall, and it was cold outside.
I asked him what he could see, and all he would tell me was that he had died and needed me to call his mom and tell her, but he wouldn't give me her name or a phone number. Eventually, the police dispatcher (who was still listening on the line) got enough clues from him to make an educated guess as to his location.
Sure enough, the PD officers found him in a cemetery, naked and piss drunk, sitting on a random headstone. He was most assuredly not dead.
Another dispatcher friend of mine had a person call and tell us that "she" wasn't looking too good and needed an ambulance. They question the caller and start CPR instructions.
It took several minutes for the crew to make the scene, and when they entered, they found our caller performing CPR on a bathrobe. The caller had recently moved to our coverage area and had been in a mental facility beforehand.
Also, when I worked on the Law Enforcement side, people would frequently call to get the correct time to set their clocks. They knew that we had atomic clocks, and ours were always correct.
[deleted]
23. The First Day
Holy crap, a Reddit post that I can actually contribute to! Officially leaving my Reddit creeper status behind!
I was a 911 dispatcher in a small rural county for about 2 years. After some training, I was finally taking calls, and the very first 911 call came in from a middle-aged man driving with his elderly mother.
He had stopped to get gas or something and accidentally locked his keys in the car, and his mother couldn't figure out how to get out of the locked car. I'm all, "OK, sir, can you ask her to open the door?" he's all. "I'm trying to get her to unlock the door, but I don't think she understands what I'm saying."
I'm at a loss for words, as this wasn't the emergency I was expecting. Meanwhile, I'm looking to my supervisor for some assistance, and she is laughing so hard she can't help. They eventually figured it out between themselves, but it seemed pretty stupid then.
Other great calls include the kid turning himself in for marijuana possession simply to spite his girlfriend (who, according to the caller, wouldn't "STOP BEING A WITCH!"). Another call was in the middle of the night from an elderly lady who was worried about the ice on her front step as she had to go to the doctor in the morning.
And the craziest call came from a woman who was convinced that the evil teenagers in her neighborhood were in her attic cooking meth and causing fires that they then used to throw her dogs and cats into.
This lady also called once to inform me that her house was prepared for take-off, and she wanted to get clearance. Turns out she wasn't all that sane.
Hacklebarney
24. The Lion King
When I was a kid, I called 911 and yelled:
"NAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH SYYBENNNYAHHHHHHHHHH BADAGEESEEEEBABAOOOOHHHHHHHH" into the phone. The Lion King had just come out, and I thought it was hilarious.
After the third or fourth time, they sent a police officer to the house, and he gave me a stern talking. My mom was pretty embarrassed.
way_fairer
25. Little Treasure Hunt
I was playing a treasure hunt with my two young daughters. We "hide" fake jewelry around the house and then look for it with flashlights.
Our neighbor saw the flashlights moving inside the house and thought we were being burgled. Called 911. Police came to the door.
Bonus. My little ladies saw the inside of a police car for the first time.
grownuppapa
26. Panic Attack
I'm not a 911 operator, but I used to be a firefighter. We took a call from dispatch once where a lady spilled a glass of water on the top of her computer. She was afraid it was going to burst into flames.
When we got there, I just kinda swiped the water from the top of the case.
Then we got a nice long story about how one of the major film publishing companies (Miramax, maybe?) has a freight train in Wisconsin transmitting radio waves into her brain to make her forget things.
Apparently, she knows the truth that the only people who can become famous are the ones whom Steven Spielberg approves of. Also, she slept in a box lined with aluminum foil.
Lawlcat
27. Unusual Scratching
My dad woke up in the middle of the night and heard a scratching sound that sounded like someone cutting through the window screen. He told my mom to call 911 while he went to investigate.
As she was on the phone explaining the situation, he discovered that it was Big Claw, the pet hermit crab, who had escaped from his cage and was climbing up the heater vent.
My mom said to the operator, "Oh, never mind! It's just the hermit crab."
The woman on the line said, "Well. That's a new one."
casestudyhouse22
28. Crazy Friend
Last weekend, my friend wanted doughnuts really bad but was way too drunk to drive there. He proceeded to stand in the middle of the street, flagging down cars and begging them to take him to get doughnuts.
When that failed, he called 911 for them to send him a cab that would take him to the doughnut shop. They actually transferred him to a cab company.
DontcallmeHerms
29. The Blind Guy
There's an old blind guy in town who gets bored and calls 911 about things he "hears" in the neighborhood. The hilarious thing is that he's 100% blind but will tell us things like,
Guy: Yeah, there was a Hispanic guy in my neighborhood, and I think he's dealing drugs. He's in a yellow car, a sports car, and I think he's selling coke.
Operator: Oh yeah? How do you know he's Hispanic?
Guy: He smelled like tacos.
Operator: How did you know he had a yellow car?
Guy: It sounded yellow.
nola911
30. The University
There is nothing like working at a university police department when it comes to stupid calls. The stupidity of smart people can sometimes amaze me, especially from the faculty/staff.
I've had a student call 911 for the bleeding from his incomplete private part. That was a fun call over the radio to the officers. Needless to say, I had to choose my words carefully. I've even had professors call in for tech help because they couldn't figure out how to get the floppy disc into their computers that only had CD drives.
Aanio
31. The Mystery Doctor
EMT buddy goes out to a 911 call for hemorrhoids. This guy says the pain is so intense that he can't move and is worried about bleeding out (drama queen). When they arrive on the scene, it's enough of an issue to warrant taking him in.
However, when they asked him why he hadn't seen a doctor sooner, he said, "I did, and he gave me these big chewy pills that taste terrible and aren't working at all."
He was eating suppositories.
oh-propagandhi
32. Unlucky People
Before I tell a couple of stories, a little background: I'm a graveyard dispatcher for a Small County in Kansas. We cover the Sheriff, PD, Fire, and EMS Dispatching along with 911 throughout the county. There's a lot of County to cover, but it's usually pretty quiet. Most 911 usually involve wrecks with deer or old ladies who have fallen and need help LifeAlert, cows on roadways.
I've had a call from an elderly lady who woke up from a nightmare and felt the need to call 911, spitting out random information including" the gas station we are at is gonna explode; the kids are playing under it.
I can't wake the driver." She went on a while of a stream of thought, then started to quote an infomercial on some Shark Vacuum that runs early in the morning, and you could barely hear in the background.
I sent a first responder to verify she was okay and not having a mental breakdown.
Another was a kid who was back visiting some family and decided to go mudding all throughout the county he didn't know after a heavy rainstorm at night and got lost, then called 911 on a feature phone and tried to give directions of where he thought he was.
While he was on the phone, it sounded like he dropped the phone, and I heard moaning on the line before it disconnected. After sending S&R and finally finding him, it turned out he was walking along the side of a mud road in the dark while talking to me and stepped over a creek barrier, fell 10 feet and broke a leg, and the phone hit the water.
va0n
33. Kid Emergency
911 operator receives a call from a Spanish-speaking subject. The operator does not speak Spanish, and the translator we used was unavailable. Following protocol, she sent me and another cop to check on the caller. Neither of us spoke Spanish either.
We were met by mom and dad and their 5-year-old son. After several minutes of broken English and hand gestures, we conclude that they're trying to tell us that the kid hasn't pooped in several days, figuring we have some sort of medical emergency and we have an ambulance dispatched.
Once the crew shows up, they begin to ask questions of Dad and the kid and are getting the same results I did. I stepped outside and was able to locate a neighbor to help translate. Turns out Dad had called 911 and tied up 2 cops, 3 EMT's and 2 paramedics for 30 minutes because his 5-year-old had crapped his pants.
piglett013
34. Concerned Citizen
My favorite call related to drinking:
An RA at the local college calls in. She's hesitant and isn't sure if she should have called 911. I ask what the problem is.
RA: There's a sophomore here, and I think he's too drunk.
Me: Do you think he has alcohol poisoning? Is he conscious and alert, breathing?
RA: Umm....he's breathing and stuff, he just, he --- can't get on the toilet.
Me: Excuse me?
RA: I've been watching him for the last 30 minutes. He keeps trying to get on the toilet and failing.
Me: Okay then, I'll send you an ambulance.
RA: It's kind of entrancing. He's trying SO HARD, and he just can't get on top of it.
nola911
35. Knocking Doors
I was the stupid caller once. Through no fault of my own, mind you.
This was in college. I was a property manager at some college apartments, basically, a glorified RA. There was this creepy guy, wearing a brown shirt, walking up to the doors to the buildings, trying to get in (they were always locked; you needed a key or someone to buzz you up).
I watched him a bit and just got a really bad vibe about him, so I called the police. I just figured maybe they could drive through the complex and scare him off.
Well, it obviously wasn't a big-hurry kind of call, so the creepy guy was gone by the time they got there. But you know who was there instead?
The UPS guy.
So, the cops come up to me and, in the most patronizing manner, explain to me that the guy dressed in brown, ringing the doorbells and trying to get in was a delivery man. I told them it was a different guy, but I got the distinct feeling that they didn't believe me and thought I was just an idiot.
My wife thinks this story is hilarious. I don't think she believes me either...
[deleted]
36. Dog Lover
9-1-1 Dispatcher in Phoenix Az, so it's hot.
It's winter time, and I got a 911 call from a lady saying that her neighbor neglects and abuses his dog. Upon asking how, she said he left the dog outside and went to the bar. It was wintertime in Arizona, so that meant our nights were about 40 degrees.
Animal control is closed, and the lady was being really nice, so I decided to take the information and was going to let animal control know of the situation. This lady was deathly afraid the dog was going to freeze overnight.
Absolutely convinced.
I started taking the information. Address, names, numbers, and when I had asked the lady what type of dog it was. The response I got made me laugh so hard that I had to mute my headset.
This lady was absolutely certain that a Siberian Husky wouldn't survive a night in 40 degrees.
People aren't very smart.
IHateArizona
37. Peanut Shock
Not a dispatcher but a former EMT here.
There was an older lady in the town that I worked in who was deathly allergic to peanut butter, but she was completely addicted to it. She would frequently call 911 before she ate a peanut butter sandwich and went into full anaphylactic shock.
We would race over there, code III each time, and I would literally have an epi-pen in my hand when I entered her house. We inevitably found her comatose on the floor each time.
Granted, these were certainly real emergencies, but they were stupid emergencies.
jayy42
38. The Babysitter
I had a friend in high school who would often babysit her niece (about 6 at the time). Whenever the niece was upset with my friend, she would lock herself in a bedroom with the phone call 9-1-1..and then hang up.
Many times, an officer was sent to the house, and my friend would have to lie every time that her niece was trying to call her mother (917 area code) and that the "1" key on that phone stuck, so the call was an accident.
TheVagothra
39. Pregnancy Test
My coworker used to work at 911. He says the stupidest call he remembers was a youngish girl calling 911 because she wanted an ambulance to come to her house to administer a pregnancy test.
They argued back and forth that she'd have to go to the hospital or a clinic for the test because an ambulance can not do so and it is not an emergency, but she refused to accept this.
Eventually, he suggested that she go to Walgreens to purchase one, and she said, "They sell those?"... I really hope she wasn't pregnant.
Yoinkelise
40. Unreliable Information
My best friend is a 911 dispatcher. And when I see him every week, my favorite thing is to ask him about the craziest thing that has happened.
There is always something.
My most recent favorite. A woman called 911, and my friend took the call.
She reported that she thought she saw someone talking on the phone while driving, which is illegal in the town where he works.
When my friend asked for details, she wasn't sure which direction he was driving, what the car looked like, or wasn't 100% sure he was on the phone. And it might have been a woman.
woolyboy76
41. Wood Carving
I called 911 once around midnight. (I was a 21-year-old girl at the time.) I said, "Uuuuuh, I was... whittling wood? And I accidentally cut my wrist!"
when responders showed up, they were surprised and disarmed to find a small pile of wood shavings next to a papa-san chair with a trail of blood leading into the kitchen and me squeezing my wrist above my head as hard as I could.
One of them said, "Oh, wait...so, you really were whittling wood?"
and another said, "You were our third call tonight, whose ending their lives." I can only imagine the 911 operator's eyes rolling at me. We stopped the bleeding, and I was fine, but my whittling days were through.
jzzanthapuss
42. Usual Calls
Jebus, where can I start? 911 operator for 8 years.
One that happens more than you would think is parents calling asking help from the police to help parent their child. "I need someone here to tell my son/daughter to do their homework/take a bath/wake them up/make them go to school."
One of my favorites, though, are the calls from gentlemen who arrange meetings with ladies for some service. Guys meet up with hookers, and then guys call the police when the ladies take their money, but nothing happens.
It is fun getting these calls because they always try to make it seem like it wasn't some type of meetup with a working girl. It is also fun to ask them if they are sure they want to speak with an officer since soliciting prostitution is also a crime as well.
After hearing that, they just say never mind. EVERY TIME.
SBHx
43. Hands Were Tied
I wasn't a 911 operator, but I worked for an emergency answering service for doctors and other places that might get calls when out of the office.
I have two favorite stories:
One was the pregnant lady who INSISTED for me to wake up the on-call (the chief of OB/GYN at the hospital was on call that night) because she had itchy nipples. Itchy freaking nipples. But I have to page it because I'm not medically trained if the patient says it is an emergency. He was NOT happy with me.
Second was an apartment complex I answered for, and a tenant called in, stating that the building was ON FIRE.
I advised him to call 911, which presumably he did. So I paged the on-call for them because I figured someone there might like to know the building was on fire.
When the on-call was nonresponsive, I had to escalate the call to the owner of the complex, who proceeded to witch me out because "What do you want me to do about it? I'm not the fire department."
He also called my boss in the morning to file a complaint. Sorry, dude. I thought you might want to know about your displaced tenants, burned buildings, and flooded floors from the sprinkler system.
Guess not.
A_perfect_sonnet
44. Overreacting Friend
I'm not a dispatcher, but this is something stupid a friend of mine did. My friend was 7 years old, and his goldfish had just died. He was very upset about it and didn't want to flush it, so his parents decided to bury it in the backyard against his wishes.
He was so upset that he called 911 and said that his best friend was dead and his parents buried him in the backyard.
So fast forward 5 minutes to the swat team showing up, having both of his parents detained, and having the yard destroyed. He finally had to clarify that it was a fish that the dispatcher called the swat team for. Sorry for any format issues; I'm using my phone.
Thatafroguy
45. Missing Mom
Kinda a cute story, but my mother used to run an ambulance in my small town. My brother was 3 then and missed my mom when she was in mid-shift. Suddenly, the doorbell rang, and I, 10 at the time, answered a police officer and was frightened.
Got my dad and found out my brother called 911 because he wanted to talk to my mom and thought that's how he could get to her. Still laugh about it to this day. At least the cop was cool about it.
He gave him a badge sticker to make him feel better. :)
skibbytoast