Not for me. I heard a woman screaming outside my window. I mean screaming like she was terrified. Ten minutes before that, I heard a car peel out and get honked at by another car. May be unrelated. Anyway, it sounds like across the street, or maybe the next street. The dispatcher said they’d send someone. I know they know this street because we have a good taco stand and a neighborhood watch.
Right after I made the call, a helicopter started buzzing my street. I mean, specifically my street; our front gate was illuminated several times. Then a cop car drove past.
I watched for a few minutes, then came back upstairs. Soon as I did, the phone rang. I was informed that no one had found anything, and did I have any more info? No, but I definitely heard screaming. And our street was being buzzed; maybe it was connected with that. Sorry I couldn’t be more help.
Jeez, I hope I don’t end up on a shit list for making a false call or something.
Mr. Rilch: Who was on the phone?
Me: The cops. 
Better to be safe than sorry, Rilchiam. I think you did the right thing, for sure.
Was that your 911 christening?
Things like that seem to happen in my neighborhood all the time.
A couple nights ago I heard some yelling and a car speeding away in front of my house. At 3:30 in the morning. When I looked out the window I saw tail-lights down at the end of the street and a person running away from my neighbors house (across the street). He seemed to be pretty close her house because he was jumping through all the bushes and flowers and stuff trying to get away.
I still don’t know what all that was about. I’ll mention this to my neighbor the next time I see her.
Tsubaki: Thanks. Unfortunately, I’ve called 911 before. One incident turned out to be a woman having a psychotic episode. I wasn’t sure I believed the guy who was trying to restrain her when he told the spectators that, but when she went off on the cops, calling them the Antichrist, or something to that effect, I was convinced. Also called an ambulance once for a neighbor. I don’t speak much Spanish, but I know what “Dios mio!” means, especially when spoken by a guy clutching his left arm. (He was ultimately okay.)
mudcrutch: Eek! Definitely tell her!
The cops would not send a chopper out based solely on a 911 call. Something must have really happened and they wanted to know if you had any other information.
jacksen9: Oh, I know they wouldn’t. Plus which, it arrived so suddenly after my call, I knew it couldn’t have been related anyway. When I heard it, I thought, “Maybe they’re looking for someone who did a crime, and what I heard was the fugitives taking a hostage.”
What they told me was “We didn’t find anything.” I wasn’t able to give them a specific building or area, and there was no more screaming by the time they got there.
I don’t know how these things work. Maybe the cops who arrived in the car were only supposed to follow up on the screaming-woman report, but not allowed to assist the chopper’s search, because they were two different calls. I do know that they didn’t capture anyone on my street. (Mr. Rilch and I once witnessed someone being arrested after being run to earth, so to speak, by a helicopter search.)
I’ve only had to call 911 once, after I watched a man scream at and threaten his wife on the street for just about 10 seconds too long. (I actually went and TOLD him to stop or I’d call the police, how insane is that?!) I literally heard the sirens as I hung up the phone, and within two minutes there were two police cars on the scene. Very gratifying.
My 18 month old daughter, on the other hand, has called 911 TWICE. The last time, she dialed it twice in a row. I had no idea until two police cars pulled into my drive.
I bet they have our name on a list somewhere: the *Irritating-but-ya-never-know * list.
I’m glad you called, Rilch. I’m a firm believer in taking some sort of action.
~karol
I’ve called 911 once: Halloween 1999. I heard something resembling an explosion outside my house, and lo and behold, two dozen teenagers outside my home were getting ready to rumble. (The explosion, as I recall, turned out to be a car driving over a box.)
Nonetheless, I wasn’t about to let a teenage brawl break out on my property. I think I officially hit old age that day, when I yelled “Hey you damn kids! Get off my lawn!”
I dial 911 all the time…on accident. See, I’m a telephone operator at my university hospital (a “telecommunications specialist,” if you will) and we have 911 on speed dial. Unfortunately, it’s right above the paging button. So, when it gets a bit crazy, and I’m lunging for the page button…oops! Sorry 911! I think they have learned to deal with us. 
I’ve called 911 a few times, only once was for myself when my back went out.
[ul]
[li]a domestic disturbance a block up from where I lived at the time.[/li][li]late one night when I was woken up by a loud bang, followed by the powerlines across the street shorting out. I wasn’t exactly sure what was going on but called 911 anyway. Turned out a car hit one of the utility poles nearby.[/li][li]smoke in the stairwell. Downstairs neighbor went out and left a hotplate on.[/li][li]car accident a few blocks away. No LEOs were on scene yet and one of the vechicles was in the middle of a busy intersection.[/li][/ul]
Sometimes I feel I should report things that aren’t really an emergency, like when I called the non-emergency number to report some gang activity in the neighborhood. I was on my way home one night when I saw some guy beaned by a beer bottle; I reported the getaway car.
Called to report someone rappelling down from the roof of the Arts Building at college. They went in through an open window. I later learned that they were students who had not completed a project required for their graduation and the classroom door was locked. I had just finished taking a very large hit off a joint and wasn’t quite sure I was seeing what I thought I was seeing.
Called to report a forest fire in the back of my house (kids playing with matches burned down 17 acres of forest).
Called to report that the neighbors across the court yard from my apartment were just moments away from killing each other in a domestic dispute. Him (in a drunken slur): “You bitch! You don’t love me anymore!” SLAP! CRASH! Her (in an equally drunken slur): “But I DO love you! Why won’t you believe me?” CRASH!
They were evicted.
I called 911 once years ago when I was living in Waikiki (Hi, Osiris). I’d just gotten out of the shower when I heard rather blood-curdling shreiks. I didn’t have a phone at the time, so I threw some clothes on, ran to the nearest pay phone, then ran back to where the shreiks were coming from. The rational part of me was thinking “This is incredibly stupid. If someone’s being attacked, what are you going to do with yourself, a pair of shorts, a t-shirt, and nothing else!”
It turned out a girl had just broken up with her boyfriend and was taking it exceptionally hard. When the police arrived, she tried to throw herself in the Ala Wai Canal, maybe 50 feet from where this happened.
CJ
I’ve called 911 twice.
Once because a bunch of teenagers were vandalizing to knock over tombstones in a Jewsish cemetary. Cops never came. Plenty of damage, and I never got close enough to identify anyone.
Second time, my neighbour burned his supper. Like really burned his supper. It had happened once before when he fell asleep with his food in the oven (he left for work at a ridiculous hour and was exhausted by the dinner hour.) That time, his smoke detector went off, and he was quick to open his windows and wave a towel in front of it.
Once day, his smoke detector kept, coming on, then going off, then coming on then going off. It really smelled like “burnt dinner” so I wasn’t concerned yet. I knocked on his door – no answer. I peeked in the kitchen window to make sure everything was under control. Everything looked alright, but smelled like “burnt TV dinner.”
My GF (now ex) called and while we were on the phone, the smoke detector came on again, and this time it stayed on, so I told her “um, that alarm’s gone off again… I think I’m going to have to call someone.” (I was quite sure it was burnt dinner, but better to be safe than sorry, especially since my neighbour wasn’t coming to the door).
The fire department peeked in the kitchen window, this time “it looked hazy”. They broke in through the back door. One fireman took the burned stuff out of the stove, two others had to wake up my neighbour. The fire had been contained in the oven, but had caused just enough smoke that after nodding off, the smoke kept him thoroughly zonked out. They got him to wake up, but he was disoriented and woozy.
They got him walking around outside and he was fine, albeit quite embarassed.
How hard is it to dial 911?
Yeah, I don’t get it either. :shrug:
I called 911 once. Twice, actually.
There’s a phone number that you can call that will tell you what phone number you’re calling from. The phone company doesn’t tell people what the number is, and it’s different everywhere.
So, as a stupid, yet perseverent, young teenage phreak, I started wardialing by hand through all three digit numbers. I hit 911 without thinking about it. I immediately hung up, and then realized that hanging up isn’t the best way to reassure the 911 people, so I called back and said I hit the wrong number.
They sent a cop anyway. 45 minutes later a sheriff came by and woke everyone up, except me, who was still screwing around. It was like one in the morning…
At some point – I haven’t pinned down the exact date – I grew up.
I called 911 a week ago Saturday. For myself!
I was driving an ATV for the first time and managed to lose control and roll it over myself into an outcropping of rocks at 30 km/hr. I managed to push it off and find my cell phone (which had somehow been thrown clear) and call 9-1-1 before collapsing in shock.
“I’ve just been in an accident. My chest is bleeding, etc, …”
“Where are you?”
"I don’t know. I’m on a trail halfway between a school and a lake that starts with a ‘T’.
I wasn’t seriously injured and I’m feeling much better now, thank you for asking.
Neptune: They found you from that description?
A good Taco stand? In North Hollywood?