My wife works at a bank. I don’t remember the exact wording, but when a teller’s drawer alarm is triggered (they have some bills that, when removed, set off an alarm) the police will call with an innocuous request (ie. is Mr Somename there?). Only one specific answer, exactly worded, will prevent a police response. Anything else, including an unanswered phone, means “we’re being robbed”.
Other types of alarms are less likely to be triggered inadvertantly, so the police just skip the phone call and respond.
I can confirm that for a place I’ve worked. My current workplace (hospital) has color codes that include fire, fire drill, security, hazmat, and others.
The referee’s hand signal for an injury is crossing his forearms in an X above his head, and it’s usually done towards the ring entrance area (where the medical staff are waiting) rather than toward the announcers.
We used to have big bonfires-cum-parties in the back yard/rear parking lot at my fraternity house; somebody would be out front keeping an eye out for the cops, with a walkie-talkie. If the DJ got on the microphone to say, “Riiiii-co-laaaaa!” it meant all the underage people needed to put down their beers real quick.
Hospital codes vary by hospital. I have volunteered in two hospitals, and I remember “Paging Dr. Rose” as the code for “fire” at one of them (I have no idea what they would have done if a doctor with that last name ever joined the staff). I was on the maternity ward at the other, and it’s killing me that I can’t remember the code for “stolen baby”! It might have been as simple as “code pink.” Once I had an uncle who was critically ill for a while, and one of the times I was hanging out in the family waiting room my aunt and I heard an overhead page that I immediately recognized as a code – though of course I didn’t know for what. We guessed that it was their “stolen baby” code, but never found out if we were right.
Back when I was a teen and worked at a Target store, there was a certain name they’d call over the intercom, which was a call for Security to go to a specific department.
When I worked at another major retailer and there was a brief time when Gypsies were hitting major stores in the area - the women would cause a major distraction at the front of the store to distract the workers, while the men would invade the back and crack the safe. (This was in the late 70’s). So they devised a code that would alert us, with the idea being that if this code was announced, all female employees were to rush to the front to deal with the distraction while all male employees of any size were to IMMEDIATELY run to the back of the store to repel an invasion.
Happened while I was not working. The sight of all the male employees running to the back of the store caused the male gypsies to abort their attack. Meanwhile, the big distraction up front was that several of the female gyspies tried to grab entire racks of clothes, and when stopped, one of them pulled her dress up over her head (with nothing on underneath) and started urinating on the clerks trying to grab her.
Small correction to the OP - the TTC only uses numeric codes to page staff for non-emergency reasons. Having been in a train that hit a jumper and a couple of trains where the passenger assistance alarm was triggered, my personal experience was that nothing was announced on the PA until well after the TTC personel had arrived on-scene.
TTC code for a jumper is a PA announcement advising that there is a “passenger injury at track level”, which is quickly downgraded to a “power out situation”, while the internal system uses “Priority One”.
There’s a good thread describing the TTC procedures in event of emergencies like jumpers and passenger injuries here. The thread is several years old, but I doubt much has changed since then since the TTC bureaucracy usually needs decades to make any change that doesn’t involve a fare hike.
The Disney Cruise Line uses (or at least used to use) the term “Bright Star”, then gives the location of the “incident”.
Happened twice on a cruise I was on a few years ago. First one was at one of the pools (heart attack - he didn’t make it :(), and the second was at one of the lounges (never knew what had happened). As soon as they made the announcement I told my wife “Something’s going down”
In my Navy Days we used “Captain to the XXXX” to get the master-at-arms to haul ass somewhere. You would typically ASK the Captain to procede somewhere, not order him around.
During a short stint in Commercial Real Estate management (skyscrapers and the like) I learned a few of these, but they were fairly typical - Code Red=fire, Code Blue=call the police
The only really interesting one I recall was “Code White” which meant a live rodent was caught on a sticky trap and freaking out the tenants, please grab a bag and go get it out of there immediately.
I think it’s unique to each store. When I worked at a Miller’s grocery store in high school, the code was “Mr. Miller to Aisle whatever.” There was no Mr. Miller.
Of course, if we got some kids who acted suspiciously and we didn’t have security in the store at the time, we’d go ahead and page, “Security to Aisle whatever.” Usually that was enough to scare people off if they had mischief on their minds.
I think Code Adam is only used at Wal-Mart and Sam’s.
Yup yup, and the signal is well known enough that WWE has used it at least once to briefly convince fans a worked injury (that is, one that was scripted and not actually injurious) was legit.
Heh, well, I’d never pretend to be an expert, never having been in the ring in front of an audience, but I am friends with a good handful of wrestlers, students, and other folks “in the business” so forgive me for clarifying your useage of some of the carny slang used for those who don’t already know it. Those who enjoy secret codes or insider terms might find this stuff interesting.
“Shooting” is to do something not in pro wrestling story reality (kayfabe) but the reality the rest of the world exists in. Such an action is not “shot” but rather “a shoot.” So a shoot punch is a “real” punch, a shoot fight is when two guys are genuinely trying to beat each other, and so on. I’ve never head anyone refer to a “shoot injury” though. It’s not literally incorrect, but I’ve only ever heard “shoot” used to refer to intentional actions. When someone gets injured in reality, it’s “not a work.” (To add yet another layer of confusion: “shoot interviews” have become popular enough to often just be referred to as “shoots”, and are often so bilious that to rant without withholding any of one’s feelings has become “shooting.”)
A “work” is something acted out. That which is not a shoot. We don’t say the F-word.
“Selling” is specifically to emote a fitting amount of pain or injury in response to another wrestlers moves or a planned stunt, regardless of how much it actually hurts. (Which is often a lot.)
“When Kurtis Anglerfish ran out of the crowd to attack The CupKake Kid, Cupkake’s selling was so convincing I really thought it was a shoot. But when I saw him and Kurtis selling tshirts together at intermission, I realized it must have been a work.”
We had something similar. Our parties were in the basement. Instead of walkie-talkies, we had a red light controlled by a hidden switch by the front door. Light goes on, beers down.
Huh? What’s the point? I just don’t get it—Why do you need a code?
Why not just announce:" this is an emergency–lock the doors and duck under a desk, NOW"
If the “code” is so publicly known --then it’s not a secret code, is it?
In a public place where you only want to inform the relevant employees, and you do not want to inform thousands of other people, then it makes sense to use a code. Presumably, those employees are trained, and know how to direct the other people, who otherwise might panic.
But if every single person in the school who hears the “code” already knows what to do, why use a silly phrase?
We guessed that it was their “stolen baby” code, but never found out if we were right.
