Have you ever called 911?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
101

Couple of times that I can recall in the past twenty years:

First was to report a truck that had just rolled over multiple times, coming to a rest moments before I crested a hill and rolled up to it on US60, about an hour west of Clovis, NM. The rollovers ejected 3 of 5 students in the car, leaving a buckled-in driver who did not survive, and a passenger in the back who was groaning and unconscious. I was second on scene, finding the ‘first’ person dressed in her Sunday finest, standing in the bed of the truck, peering into the window… I ‘snapped in’, did “my fives and twenty fives” and immediately got comms to 911 up and running. Those three other students? Didn’t even see them down the embankment until one of them woke up and started crawling over the side-of-the-road guardrail.

Second was to report a bear out in the yard. Game & Fish took a report, but that was about it …

Tripler

The student in the back was AirEvac’ed out, but ultimately passed away.

102

Three times in the almost three years I’ve lived in Portland, OR. Once for a homeless guy who walked up to a group of us and asked us to call 911 because he wanted to kill himself. So I did. Then he flaked off. Second time was for a guy who I was convinced was dead on the sidewalk. OD. But either someone gave him some Narcan or his adrenaline kicked in but he just popped up and ran away. Third time was just last week to report a nasty accident right in front of my apartment building.

103

I think I’ve mentioned it before, but the techie guy who set up the Compaq I used to work from home got the dial-up number (remember dial-up as fondly as I do???) configured incorrectly. When I dialed up I got 911, but didn’t know because it was on the computer, and the “call” didn’t go anywhere that I could see.

The LAPD were very quick and polite. But they insisted I let them go upstairs to check. I yelled to my sister to make sure she was clothed, and they checked and were gone in probably less than a minute.

104

Visiting mom’s house and she was all out of it. I stayed and she collapsed. Turns out some dentist had removed a lot of her teeth and she lost a lot of blood.

I wasn’t used to using corded phones anymore so when they asked me to check up on her condition, I stretched it so far it nearly broke off the wall. I said, I’m going to call on my cell phone - here’s the number - and somehow it worked out.

She lived another 23 years - to 96.

105

Well, I’ve got another one for me. Shit, my heart is still pounding. About 45 minutes ago (about 2 a.m.) I was in the living room watching TV. I heard what sounded like an echo of the dialogue in the show a couple times and thought that was weird. But then my spidey senses went on alert and I turned off the sound. In a few minutes I heard loud mumbling from the front porch followed by random yelling. Scared the shit out of me. I called 911.

The dispatcher asked a lot of questions like what he was yelling and what he was wearing. I told him it was just yelling and I wasn’t going to look out there. He also asked what I was wearing and I said “what?”. He said so the police would know what I looked like when they got there. I said they were not going to see me. That was weird. I guess maybe he was just keeping me talking.

The police showed up in about 5 minutes and shined their light on the house. I peaked out a window when I heard them coming up and saw a shirtless man laying at the bottom of my porch steps. They talked to him for about 10 minutes. I couldn’t hear what they were saying but he did raise his voice a few times like he was arguing with them. Eventually, they convinced him to come with them and left. Thankfully it was all peaceful.

I won’t be going to sleep any time soon.

106

They didn’t even contact you to make sure you were okay?

107

I did wonder about that. But when they got up to the porch, I turned the porch light to “high” (it was in power saving mode), so they knew I was aware of them. Also, since I’d been on the phone with the dispatcher until shortly before they arrived, I guess they assumed I was ok.

I wish now I had cracked the door and tried to hear the conversation. But I was scared it could turn violent, so I stayed in the hallway. I wonder where he came from. He was obviously impaired. There are no bars or anything near here. Was he visiting someone? Does he live nearby? How did he come to wander up to my porch?

I was telling someone earlier that it was so interesting that my subconscious was aware that something was off before I knew it. The “flight or fight” response hit me before I actually heard him. That instinct is there for a reason. I expect I’ll be hyper-vigilant for a while.

108

I worked at the local State Hospital for decades and many of our new patients were brought in by police, a good many for being off their meds and showing up to people’s houses. Most common, if you’re interested, was people (again, off their meds) showing up at convenience stores or walking down highways. What got the police involved was that, for some reason, they tended to like to do both those things naked.

109

My mother typed up quite a few of those reports when she was a police department secretary.

As for showing up to people’s houses, naked or not, my first thought was that protection orders may well have also been in effect.

110

I’ve used 911 twice. First time was about 20 years ago, a few years after we’d moved to our current house. An elderly couple, Olive and Sid, lived in the house across the street. Olive had been in cognitive decline for about a year at that point and they had daily visits from a home-care worker. One day, as Olive, Sid and the home-care worker were setting out for a walk, Olive tripped and hit her forehead on the iron fence around their front yard. I could see a fair amount of blood on her face from across the street so I called 911 and then went across the street to see if I could help. Olive had a 2 inch cut/loose flap of skin just above one eyebrow but the bleeding was not serious. An ambulance showed up within a few minutes, cleaned her face, applied a dressing and transported her to hospital for evaluation. While this was going on, I did my best to keep Sid out of the paramedics way, he was angry and upset, mostly about Olive’s broken glasses. The injury was not serious and Olive was back home later the same day.

The second 911 call was about 6 years ago. There is a house 2 doors away that is owned by an indigenous housing service that provides subsidized housing to families in need. The tenants at the time were a single mother and two of her children, a wannabe gang banger young man in his early twenties and a girl in her early teens. It was a week night, about 11:30 and I was working in my little second floor home office that overlooks the street. I heard a loud pop/crack, and a second later 3 more in quick succession. It sounded like gunshots, and I then heard a raised male voice but couldn’t make out what was said. My first reaction was to look out the window, quickly followed by the thought that I was presenting a perfect silhouette, so I shut the light off and called 911 to report possible gunfire. The police response was impressive, within maybe 3 minutes at least 5 cruisers appeared and at least a dozen officers spilled out, I learned later that mine was just one of five 911 calls made. When one of the officers called out that there were shell casings on the sidewalk, the atmosphere became rather charged. It turned out that a friend of the son had been making unwelcome sexual advances on the sister, the brother had called the friend out on it while they were standing on the sidewalk in front of the house. The friend pulled a pistol and fired 4 shots, 3 into the ground and one through the front window, then fled on foot. No one was hit, and as far as I know, the friend was never charged. It was somewhat amusing though to see the mother out on the front porch as the police were combing the area, shouting that it had nothing to do with any of them while there was a bullet hole in the window behind her.

111

Four times that I can think of, all somewhat strange.

Once when I awoke to find a decapitated cat in our back yard. The response was essentially, And you want us to do what? After asking around to see if anyone local was missing a cat, we eventually buried it in a nearby wood.

Once when our elderly neighbor rang us because there was a young man trapped in her back yard asking her to unlock a gate to let him out. He had jumped the back fence after being chased, probably by his unpaid drug dealer (there was a lot of that sort of thing going on a the the time.)

Once, in our previous house, where we had an elderly next door neighbor, Mrs A. One evening I was chatting to her in her sitting room when she had what appeared to be a stroke. By the time the ambulance arrived she was fine (it was a TIA) but they took her to hospital anyway. About an hour later I had to go and pick her up.

This one I have posted before: Our elderly neighbor on the other side was Mr B. He was in the habit of going round to Mrs A’s house in the afternoon for a chat and a cup of tea. Shortly after the above scare he appeared at our door one afternoon. Mrs A wasn’t answering when he rang the bell. He was concerned. Could I go round and check on her? I had a key, and so off I went.

I need to explain that the house was laid out such that if you went in the front door you could walk from room to room in a circle round the ground floor and end up back at the front door. I let myself in at the front door, calling out, and walked through the ground floor til I came to the kitchen. Mrs A was on the floor and cold to the touch.

I was a trained first-aider in those days, and at the time we were taught that the very first thing you do, if you’re on your own, is to call 999 - so I kept on walking to get the the phone, which was almost back at the front door. I dialled 999

Call center: Police, ambulance or fire service?

Me: Ambulance. (Transferred)

Call center: How can I help you?

Me: My neighbour has collapsed, I need an ambulance.

Man standing behind me: I wouldn’t bother if I were you.

Me: What?

Call center: What?

Man standing behind me: I wouldn’t bother if I were you.

Me: Who the fuck are you?

Call center: [Started yelling at me]

Man standing behind me: I’m her doctor. She’s been dead for some time.

Me: (To the call center) Look, you better talk to this guy. (Hands the phone over)

The doctor was then bollocked as a timewaster for a solid five minutes for his trouble. It turns out that Mrs A had been unwell during the day, and he had made a house call as a result. He was concerned enough that he decided to call in again on his way home, saw the door was open, let himself in, and had basically followed me round the house in a circle until he found me on the phone.

FWIW: from the position in which I found her, I’m sure that Mrs A was dead (or as good as) when she hit the floor. So that’s a little comfort - I was able to tell her daughter that it must have been very quick.

j

112

I called twice. Once I could hear two adults screaming at each other, with a lot of thumps. Kids were crying in the background. Turns out help was already on the way as others had reported it.

The second time a groupd of people on the other side of my street were screaming and holleing at each other. Cops never came for that one.

113

Once, at work. I made plates for a huge newspaper press and a pressman fainted and fell maybe ten feet to the floor, and was out cold. I had just gotten my first cell phone and quickly made the call. Turns out someone else also made the call earlier, so my helpful gesture was nothing more than that.

114

Once, when my mother died; I was her live-in caretaker at the time. She was quite frail due to the aftereffects of cancer and its treatment, and essentially just dropped dead in the middle of a room. At least it was apparently quick.

115

Yes I have, several times.

Once when I saw a man in front of me prevent a woman from getting out of the car by yanking on her hair and hitting her. I followed them for awhile, but eventually he pulled over and she got out and walked away.

The last time was not long after I moved into this mobile home. It sounded like someone was trying to break in. Turned out to be a raccoon on the roof. I was quite embarrassed.

On my 18th birthday, my father allowed me to take my sister to town for a movie, but they wouldn’t let her in because she was only 15. So we went to a Sonic type place and headed home. Unbeknownst to us, a man followed us and a few minutes after we got inside, we saw him in the back yard in nothing but his underwear. I ran to the bedroom and woke my father, who grabbed his gun and instructed me to call the police. That was a very memorable birthday.

116

This reminded me of one instance in which I’d called 911, which I had forgotten.

About 8 or 9 years ago, I was working in an office building in downtown Chicago. The management of the building decided to do an “active shooter drill” – the issue was:

  • They did a terrible job of communicating, ahead of time, to the building’s occupants that this was going to be a drill
  • They also did a terrible job of communicating, ahead of time, to the Chicago Police Department, that they were going to be conducting a drill

So, out of the blue one morning, the fire alarms begin to sound, and there’s some cryptic, difficult-to-understand message announced over the PA, about “active shooter” and “shelter in place.” About a dozen of us went into an interior room, barricaded ourselves in there, and called 911.

Repeated messages came over the PA, about “you can come out,” but they sounded very unprofessional, and we were all convinced that a shooter had commandeered the PA system – we called 911 again, and the dispatcher advised us to stay sheltered in place.

We were in there for about 60 minutes, when the CPD finally showed up, and convinced us to open the door. We then saw a dozen CPD officers, weapons in hand, outside the room, ready to escort us out, but also making sure that there wasn’t a shooter in the room. They told us that yes, it was apparently a drill, and no, building management hadn’t told them about any drill ahead of time.