I’ve probably called a couple dozen times over the decades; fortunately, never for anything life-threatening that I know of. I’ve used the non-emergency line whenever possible, or practical.
And more than once, when I was practicing, someone would call for advice on this or that problem, and I would tell them, “Get off the phone with me, and call 911.” We all had that experience at some time.
Once upon a time (or maybe twice), a long time ago, I read a bizarre story in the news about a guy who somehow got locked into a walk-in freezer in New York. He somehow contacted an emergency call number in Norway or Sweden. ( :dubious: Sorry, I have no recollection of how that happened! :dubious: ) The operator there relayed the message to New York, and the guy was rescued.
I have my own story of a long-distance 911 call, although not quite that long distance, circa 2006.
I lived in Fresno, Ca. I had frequent and lengthy phone conversations with a friend in San Francisco. He was known (by me) to be alcoholic and to have other older-guy health problems. During these calls, he had to leave the phone frequently to go pee. He was also known to fall sometimes (likely over the piles of empty wine bottles all over his floor), and sometime not be able to get back up.
See where this is going?
So one day he left the phone (presumably to go pee) and never returned to the phone. I waited about 15 minutes. Every minute or two, I heard some very faint commotion in the distant background. After hearing this multiple times, I began to think it was somebody calling for help.
So I hung up and called (local Fresno area) 911. I asked them if they could connect me to San Francisco area 911. They could not. They gave me a 10-digit phone number to call for San Francisco police. I called that and found the number was dead. :smack:
I called local 911 again and told them that. They took the guy’s name. They asked for his address. Of course, I had that, but not at my fingertips just then, so I couldn’t tell them. They put me on hold and called someone in San Francisco for me.
The police were able to locate him just from his name and phone number. Fifteen minutes later, my friend called me back, wanting to give me “a thousand thanks”.
His story: He had in fact tripped over something. (Wine bottles, probably.) The police came and banged on his door. When he didn’t answer, they were somehow able to contact his upstairs-neighbors, who were old friends of his from their college days. They had access. They all went in and got him picked up and maybe cleaned up (he had peed himself and maybe shit himself while laying on the floor).
Epilog: Not too long after that, he fell again and broke his hip or whatever. That time, he ended up in a hospital. Thereafter, his health went rather steadily downhill. Last I heard, he was in some kind of nursing home. I haven’t had any contact with him for about 10 years now.
Only once, thank God. I was at my wife’s aunt’s house and saw a woman on a bike get hit by a car on the next block over. I called 911 and stayed with her until paramedics arrived. She was bleeding and shaken up, but it was not life-threatening.
It was summer and windows were open. A man and a woman who lived across the street from me sounded as if they were having a screaming, knock down, drag out fight, and I could hear kids crying in the background. I called 911 and the dispatcher, after confirming the address, told me others had already called and the officers were on the way. It sure lit up the neighborhood for a while.
Multiple times.
Those are the ones I can remember off-hand; there have probably been a few more.
Once, when someone was going the wrong way on the highway and nearly hit me.
I’ve only called from our current boonies home. A couple times when neighbors left trash piles burning unattended - they got to pay for the fire dept visits. Once when another neighbor’s dog pack was threatening us and hadn’t yet been eaten by local bears. And just a few months ago when MrsRico fell and broke her arm - a nasty compound fracture. Luckily the ambulance and fire barns are only 3-5 mountain minutes away.
I’ve had 911 called for my own benefit a few times, just when I stopped breathing. I’ve been fixed since then.
Twice, once for a car accident in front of my house out in the country and once when I was in a single-car accident: black ice sent me down an embankment and into a ditch. That last time it was weird. I called 911 at the same moment a cop–who hadn’t seen the accident–phoned into the dispatcher for something else. Turns out he was on the road directly above me.
A hint for people with children: when you’re going out for the evening, make sure you write your home address in big letters where the babysitter can easily see it. In an emergency, the sitter may not be able to remember your address, and it can take time for 911 to ping the call.
A few other stories:
Called 911 (or local police number maybe, this was in 1979. Did 911 exist back then?) because I saw prowlers at night with flashlights scoping out a neighboring apartment building. Dispatcher told me they were actually cops, responding to some other call.
Heard small commotion outside sometime after midnight. Looked out window, saw three teenagers around neighbor’s parked pick-up truck. While I watched, they smashed the window. I called 911. Meanwhile, they moved on down the block and were about to smash a window in parked vehicle a bit farther down the block.
Tenant who owned that second vehicle happened to look out too, and came out and chased them away. As it happened, his teen-age daughter also looked out, and recognized them because they went to school together. Oops.
Cops came. Talked to neighbor down the block. Never came to look at my next-door neighbor’s pick-up.
Next day, it was obvious that they had been smashing windows on a whole lot of cars up and down the block. Apparently they weren’t stealing anything. Just vandalism for vandalism’s sake. The cops got them (because neighbor girl knew them). I didn’t hear any follow-up after that.
One late evening, I heard shouting and profanities. Looking out the window, two guys in street having an altercation. I called 911. Before cops arrive, fight broke up and one guy turned and ran, out of sight. I called 911 to tell them that. Then (wait for it!) the guy who ran came back! The started fighting again. I called 911 again. This time, the other guy (the one who didn’t run and come back) had some kind of baton-like weapon – maybe a length of pile, with which he beat the shit out of the other guy.
Cops came. Slowly drove the whole block, probably hoping to see the perp (who was wearing a distinctive looking shirt that I described). They didn’t see the victim laying in the gutter between two parked cars.
Driving back the other way, then they saw him. He had managed to crawl onto the sidewalk and was laying there in a pool of blood.
Epilog #1: A few days later, a cop came to my door with a page of poorly-photocopied mug shots and asked if I recognized any of them. I did not. (Hey, it was dark out at the time.) I heard from neighborhood gossip that the victim was in the hospital, in serious or critical condition, maybe in a coma. It was known (according to the gossip) who both parties were. Apparently the guy eventually recovered.
A few weeks later, a cop came to my door with a subpoena to go to court as a witness. They day before the court day, I called the court (just like you do before jury duty) and found that the case had been postponed.
Epilog #2: A few weeks after that, a cop came to my door with another subpoena. This time, of course, it was for a day that I had other plans that could not be postponed. :smack:
I called the deputy DA who was handling the case. I told her about the guy leaving the scene and then coming back, which she did not previously know. She considered that very significant. She wasn’t sure if the victim wanted to press charges. She told me that she felt she had all the evidence she needed, and so I was excused from the subpoena.
As for my other plans: A friend was taking his sailplane commercial exam that day, and I was going to go there to be his ground crew. Being excused from the subpoena, I was able to do that.
I never heard any further follow-up about the case.
Couple of other times I called 911 for my own medical emergencies.
Once, out of nowhere, I suddenly had double vision. At first, it was just garbled vision and I couldn’t make out what I was seeing. It became clearly double vision after a few minutes.
Ambulance came in about 10 minutes, by which time the double vision had (mostly) gone away. They took me to the ER anyway, where I got a cat scan and visit with a doctor and a follow-up appointment, but they never found anything wrong with me.
I had repeated episodes of double vision intermittently for the next six months (this was in 2005) and then it never happened again to this day.
I’ve had sporadic episodes of severe bronchitis over the past 40 years. Several times I drove myself to the ER, where they either did nothing or did something. Twice I got a neighbor to drive me (once was the case I blogged in detail on this board a few years ago). Once I called 911 to come and get me because I was having trouble breathing. At least once, I didn’t go the ER when I had trouble breathing and really really should have.
Another case: I heard shouting in Spanish, which I don’t understand. Looking out, a Hispanic man and woman walking down the sidewalk across the street. The man was shouting at the woman and pushing her. One push was strong enough to knock her down.
I called 911.
Others must have called 911 also, because a cop car came screeching up within seconds after I called.
They had the guy sitting on the curb. He began crying and it sounded like begging. I heard the cops assure him (in English) that they weren’t going to arrest him.
Of course they did. They put him in the cop car and off they went. I think he was an illegal alien and worried that this would get him deported. If so, that’s probably really something he should have worried about.
Okay, here’s a case where I didn’t call 911.
But it was probably okay because, faster than I could decide if I should have, there were a dozen cop cars, a couple of ambulances, and maybe some fire trucks at the scene! They were there investigating for the next 4 or 5 hours, most of the night.
At about 01:30 on the morning of Dec. 26, 2019 – Christmas barely over – a cop pulled over a driver who had just left a nearby liquor store. Stories vary: Expired or questionable plates or tags, or suspected drunk. The guy then pulled a gun and shot the cop multiple times. He died at the scene, and the driver drove away.
This was just down at my corner, three (smallish) apartment buildings away. I was up at my computer. I heard the shots. They sounded like a quiet “Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop”, not any loud bangs. I wasn’t sure if they were gunshots.
You may have read of the case. It made nationwide headlines in the major newspapers, as well as the local papers. President Trump even publicly remarked on it (to demagogue about those dangerous illegal Hispanic immigrants). This was before it was even known who the perp was.
There was a major manhunt for him. They finally caught up with him several days later in a farm town near Bakersfield, probably a six-hour drive from here. They traced his steps through several friends or relatives he had hid out with along the way. They were all questioned and some were arrested. After he was arrested, the local police drove there to get him – they used the dead cop’s handcuffs on him.
Several years ago, I was driving towards my house on a main road when I saw water spurting several inches out of a sidewalk crack - at the top of a small crest. I also called 911 because I wasn’t sure of the exact people to contact, and that something like this probably indicates a main break. Didn’t hear any more about it.
Five or six times at Taco Bell - mostly for drunks we couldn’t wake up. One time it was because State Street’s resident violent homeless woman had walked up to a guest and said “buy me food”. When he declined she started hitting him. It says something about her that all I had to do was say “Honey’s hitting a customer” and they knew exactly who I meant and immediately dispatched officers. We had to call 911 on her several times, but that was the only time I had to.
I’ve called 911 for guests many times. Mostly they believe they’re suffering a heart attack. One jerk from a different room called the front desk to complain about the EMTs and the ambulance’s lights one time. " That ambulance some us up. We’re trying to sleep. How soon before they go away?" Sure, we’ll just tell the EMTs to let him die, then.
Several car accidents. Some witnessed. I couple I was in.
Three times. Once when my mom started a small fire in the microwave and I had visions of the house going up in
flames. She put it out quickly so I was able to tell them everything was okay after all.
The second time was when a friend fell and broke her ankle in the park we walked in. I was on the phone
with 9-11 for what felt like forever - the guy was rude to me, too. 
The third time I called from my office at night after a man had broken in and raped me at gunpoint. I literally
did not know if he was still in the building. The dispatcher correctly identified him as the serial rapist who’d been “active” lately in the area.
Six times.
Junkie girlfriend of neighbor lying bleeding in the vestibule of our building. Had smashed the glass side window in attempt to reach in an open the locked door. Smashed the glass on the wrong (hinge) side and cut her arm up pretty badly trying to reach over to the doorknob.
My daughter (15 months) climbed up a table and pulled down a statue on her head. So much blood. Very minor injury it turned out.
Bicyclist on interstate highway. At night!
Teens vandalizing a car in the health club parking lot. Cops came over a caught two out of five punks. Let them off with a warning, and told me off for over-reacting. Also outed me as the “snitch” to the punks!
Car crash, I was rear ended and the guy in the truck that hit me was screaming angrily at me for “stopping suddenly for no reason”. I just rolled my window back up and dialed 911. He was arrested for prior warrants.
Tennis opponent was swarmed by bees and went into anaphylactic shock. Another person found his Epipen and administered it, while I called 911. Epipen worked like magic, but apparently he could have gone back in a while if he wasn’t treated more comprehensively.
Couple of times I have asked someone else to call 911. Gang fight broke out in front of the store I was working in. I pulled the shutters down. Fire Marshall cited us for doing that with customers in the store. Store owner and customers very happy with my actions. Another time, same store. Found a dead body in the dumpster enclosure. Overdose. This was back during the crack cocaine era (1990).
UK: Friend cleaned his glasshouse, fell through the roof and cut an artery. Obviously bleeding like crazy, so after some first aid I called 999 and related the incident to the operator. Their first question was “Did he do it on purpose?”
Just remembered another time: Back when I was living in NYC, one night I heard a woman screaming very loudly from an open window across a small courtyard from me. She was yelling “Get off me!” and cursing. It was obvious that a rape was in progress. I called 911, and probably other people did too, because the cops were there in less than a minute. There were search lights all over the fire escapes, but I never found out whether they caught the guy.