911 Dispatchers Are Revealing The Petty And Stupid Reasons People Have Actually Called 911, And I'm In Shock
Recently, Reddit user u/_Atoms_Apple asked, "911 operators of Reddit, what is the pettiest reason someone has called 911?" Here are some of the mind-boggling, infuriating, and just plain silly reasons!
1."I've had a woman call emergency because their sister was refusing to share their food at a cinema."
2."A call came from a woman who just got out of church and the drive-thru to KFC was too long, so she wanted an officer to come out and help. Fun times."
3."I had a guy call 911 just because he wanted to see fire trucks and ambulances with lights and sirens. He miscalculated. There was a cop, too...and he was not amused. Dude spent the night in jail."
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4."We had a call (I worked for the ambulance service) asking where the best place to get a bacon sandwich was at 4 in the morning."
5."I received a call on the nonemergency line from a ninetysomething lady asking me what lamp she should put in her bedroom. I told her I did not understand and that the sheriff’s office was not the correct place to ask. Eventually she got upset and said, 'Fine, I’ll call 911, they’ll help me there!' I tried to tell her that 911 would just go back to me and it was a misuse of an emergency line, but it was too late. Fifteen seconds later, 911 rings; I answer, and lo and behold, it was the lady asking, 'What lamp should I get for my bedroom?'”
6."A classmate of mine in sixth grade called 911 because he lost to his sister in Hungry Hungry Hippos."
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7."My mother was a 911 dispatcher. One of my favorite stories was a woman who called and reported that 'a turtle is on my porch and I don’t know what to do.'"
8."A female customer once called the cops on my coworkers for scaring her too much. We work at a haunted house."
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9."As a paramedic, I have responded to the same guy's house twice to find his phone charger."
10."Not me, but a close family friend worked taking 911 calls for years. She said the number of calls they get about how to cook turkeys at Thanksgiving time is just baffling."
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11."When I was in EMS, we were dispatched to a psych call. When we got there, this lady was standing outside her house ready to go to the hospital. On the way to the hospital, I was talking to her and trying to get her vitals when she told me there was nothing wrong with her; she heard a family member was in the hospital and needed a ride, so she called 911."
12."I answered a nonemergency call because she had been transferred off the 911 line. It was 3 a.m. and she wanted to know what she could do about a business who blocked her on Yelp because she left a bad review. Took every ounce of self-control not to tell she could just go to bed."
13."A teen called saying someone was in a store parking lot selling drugs and he bought some for 'evidence.'"
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14."A lady called because her neighbor’s Chihuahuas were having sex and she thought that was disgusting."
15."My coworker answered a call asking how badly the bridge was backed up, as they had diarrhea."
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16."A girl called police because she could hear someone yelling 'STEEEEVE!' very loudly outside and was worried for Steve...she called back and stated that it turned out to just be a motorcycle engine."
17."A friend of mine is a police officer and once told me they’ve had people call over whose turn it is on the PlayStation."
18."I work for a small police station, but I once had 911 put through a caller who then requested that I patch them through to a pizza place so they could order pizza from a 911-only cellphone."
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19."I worked 999 in the UK. I had a guy call because he’d run for the bus, but it pulled away before he could reach it."
20."We had heavy wind, so someone called 911 to report that their lawn chair blew over."
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21.And finally, here's a kind of cute story: "At 7 years old, my brother called 911 'just to say hi.' Now he's a dispatcher and has to deal with all those calls."
Do you have any embarrassing stories about accidentally calling 911, or did you work as a dispatcher and hear some wild things? Let us know in the comments!
Note: Some submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
