911 is the emergency number here in Canada if you’re unfamiliar. 112, 999, etc if you’re elsewhere IIRC.
Do you remember the first time you had to use it?
What were you thinking, feeling?
First time I had to use it in earnest I was working front end at a post office and there was a random guy doing maintenance behind me in the back area of the office. Barely said a word to him, he barely said a word to me. I was fairly busy and he seemed kinda gruff.
Bit later all of a sudden he taps me on the shoulder pretty aggressively, I turned and was getting ready to give him some not-polite words about touching me like that and how he better not damn well do that again but I stopped when I saw the look on his face.
He just says, “call 911.”
I look blankly at him, getting some mental whiplash, and just dumbly go, “what?”
Him, “I’m having a fucking heart-attack, CALL 911!”
That got through so I called them, gave them the info. He went back into the office and laid down.
I was a bit in shock myself and just looked at the customers in line in front of me and said to the woman, “he’s having a heart attack, sorry.”
Honestly think I could’ve handled the situation better, at least gone back and been more empathetic but I was caught between him, customers, and making sure I was visible so I could wave the paramedics to where they needed to go.
The post office there was tucked into the back corner and most of the store didn’t even know about it until I told them later that day.
Never heard anything after, no clue if the guy survived, or not. Didn’t see him again either way.
You?
First time living alone. Neighbor had some unwelcome company. Gun shots ensued. I laid down in the bathtub and called 911 for the first, and hopefully, last time. Not a great night.
At that same place, a guy once knocked on my back window to ask if I wanted to smoke meth with him. I have never smoked meth and this was the first and only time ive ever seen this man. I asked him wtf his problem was and he said he was hiding from the cops which opened up so many more questions than I wanted to actually ask him. So I told him about a secluded spot (allegedly/parody/etc) down the very narrow alley he definitely struggled to fit into and he crab walked the rest of the way down, never to bother me again. I fucking hate texas.
According to the training at various jobs I’ve held, if gunshots are likely to be a threat, you should lay down wherever is available and put your knees under your chest to kink up your body.
The reasoning given was that bullets tend to travel in a straight line, so if you minimize the straight lines in your body, you’re in less danger. This never really made sense to me, but it’s what I was officially told.
If you were in something like a cast iron tub, that might protect you, but I doubt any modern tub would make much of a difference.
I’m glad you survived your experience!
Very good information to have. I will hopefully never have a reason to use it, but if i do? It’s Toynbee that saved my life ig lol. In this case tho, I had just finished brushing my teeth, so the tub just seemed the intuitively correct spot to curl up and cross those fingers. The tub wasnt made of anyrhing special, so had a stray been loosed my way, I may have had some very different content to bring to this thread.
And thanks. Im honestly surprised all 3 of us (not to mention the other neighbors and their pets) did. The unwelcome guest was the only to recieve injury in the exchange (besides the number of broken things and holes in walls ofc), but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t scared for my life during or psychologically unscathed by the event. Thank god for talk therapy
I was sitting at a stop sign, waiting to turn right, and watched a horrible car accident happen right in front of me. A small car had pulled out into the intersection just before I pulled up to the stop. It slowed down, in the middle of the road, maybe it stalled, I don’t know. I looked to the left and saw a pickup truck coming around the curve, going too fast, straight toward the car. The truck hit the small car so hard that it launched into the air and rolled, landing on its roof. A couple got out of the small car, apparently uninjured. I read in the news the next day that the truck driver died.
I’d had a cell phone for less than a year at that point, this was a long time ago. I called 911, and by the time I was done with the call, traffic had backed up behind the cars, and people were out surrounding both cars. So, I just continued on home.
Used to call them all the time as part of a job working university campus security. We knew them, they knew us, no big deal. We were briefed each year on how to talk to them, what order to give descriptions of people’s attire for example (top-down, inside-out), the specific phonetic alphabet they used, a map of campus with cardinal directions, all that stuff. Not a huge deal.
Just commenting so hopefully I remember to check back in on this thread later, I work in a 911 dispatch center.
Currently I’m on my break, but we’re dealing with some high winds knocking down trees and power lines and such and things so things are kind of blowing up for us (sometimes literally, more than a few transformers have popped) if things die down later I’ll try to chime in, answer questions, maybe share some stories.
Neat, be interesting to hear from the horses mouth. (At it were.)
Dunno if I could do your job, good on ya. All the times I’ve had to phone 911 they’ve been calm and collected and it’s certainly helped keep me calm as well. (The above story sadly is just the first time.)
Yeah that’s kind of the goal. At my dispatch center we have this big tacky sign by one of our entrances “The calm voice in the night”
To which I always kind of add in my head “asking you to please step outside and talk to the officer knocking at your door”
To get to your main question, my first time calling 911 was for my parked vehicle (well technically my dad’s vehicle, I was about 18, still living at home and using my parents cars since they had 3) getting hit and ran at my job (different job)
Nothing too special there. I didn’t see it but a couple other people did. It was a work truck that did it, and they were able to get the company name for me. Gave them the location, description of the truck, and waited around for an officer to come take a report. I take a good handful of calls like that every single day now.
Parents still have that vehicle too. 1993 Ford ranger, just recently rolled over 100k miles, I’m proud to have been driving it when it happened, had to borrow it to move some stuff and the timing worked out. I love that truck.
The other guy of course denied everything, and there wasn’t really any conclusive evidence that pinned it to a specific person or vehicle for that company, so nothing much came of it, and all the damage was a broken tail light, not really worth making an insurance claim over or making much of a fuss about. Another guy I worked with worked part time for a mechanic and hooked me up with a good deal on a new tail light assembly. Swapped it out right there in the parking lot of the pizza shop I worked at one night.
I did chime in with some thoughts and rants on some of the other replies here in case you haven’t seen them.
Son was going through a rough patch and was doing some drugs, came home and started to OD on some synthetic weed. Called 911 and asked for an ambulance, they only sent the police and arrested him even though I said no and to leave my house. It fucked my kid up being 17 at the time and has had a record because of it. I’ll never call 911 again.
I was a teen, staying up late, probably watching videos on my phone when I heard arguing from down the street. I peeked out of my bedside window. I couldn’t really see them, but it was a couple who got lost at night. I listened to them arguing for some time, annoyed at first, trying to figure out if I could help them somehow, or could at least let them know to tone it down. I couldn’t make everything out, but I believe at one point the woman shouted “hit him”. It took me a moment to summon the courage to call the police, wondering if this was really an emergency, but as they were still arguing I called it in, nervously shaking.
I told them that I felt the woman was threatening the man, and they agreed to send someone over. Ten minutes later they got back into the car and drove off before the police arrived.
One time coming back from work late at night there was a car stopped in the road about 2 houses down from my house. There was a couple arguing, one of them standing outside the cars the other one inside.
They were yelling and making a bit of a ruckus, but nothing that was exactly going to wake up the neighbors (although that may say more about how few fucks anyone in that neighborhood gave than about how loud they were being)
And honestly I would have been happy to leave them to it, even though it was like 11pm, except that they were blocking the road and I wanted to go to bed.
They were oblivious to me sitting behind them, flashing my high beams, I may have even honked at them, it’s been probably 15+ years so I can’t remember for certain.
So I called 911, gave them the details, turned around and went around the block to get home.
Sat on my porch for a few minutes watching the show to make sure it didn’t escalate (didn’t really think it was going to, my neighborhood was pretty chill overall, we just had a few loudmouths who didn’t know how to shut up) until the cops arrived, then I went in and went to bed. Don’t know what happened from there, I assume the cops basically just told them to shut up and go home.
If they just pulled over they could have kept arguing all night for all I cared. I would’ve slept through it.
I was in a car accident. On my way back to the office from lunch out and this woman made a left turn from the opposite side in front of me. I basically t-boned her at 50-55mph. We were both okay, just shocked, but our cars were blocking the intersection. She kept saying I was going too fast and that she was driving home from church. I just sat down on the sidewalk waiting for cops and tow truck to show up. Funny enough I remember, even though my car couldn’t go anywhere, I turned off the engine, got out, and still locked the car.
I had to hitch a ride with the tow truck to their office so I at least had some shelter (middle of summer with no shade around) and wait for a taxi to pick me up. The other woman had her husband pick her up.
15 years ago, young student, I’m walking home around midnight. In the middle of a bridge I see a human shape jumping in the water. I’m not 100% sure. I ask a group of people further up on the bridge if they saw anything, they didn’t, but said I still should call 112.
One or two police cars came, and then one (or 2?) fire truck. Lots of people. Some went with full diving equipment in the water.
They couldn’t find anyone, said it was surprising as the water was very low. The fireman captain gave me the stinkeye.
Police had left their lightbar on and the car wouldn’t start (I think that was the reason) so I helped to push.
I had to come to the police station and tell what I saw many, many times.
Only years later did I realize I was being interrogated, to find out if my story had holes. I was quite naive (dumb works too).I wasn’t drunk, depressed, or had any kind of weird fantasies that would make me want to invent a story. It’s the only time I called the cops in my life.
All cops were friendly, even though they must’ve thought I was lying or had too much imagination.
Did someone jump? Now I think not. But at the time I really thought there was a possibility, and I wouldn’t take any chances. I just didn’t realize how many people and resources would be involved.
I forgot: I called two more times recently because my phone screen would not turn on, and apparently there’s a setting in LineageOS to call the emergencies if you fiddle with the buttons, so as to make the situation even worse, and then there’s a voice telling you you’re about to talk to someone and you can’t hang up! (Edit: I suppose they would call back in any case).
Happened twice before I found the setting. So yeah, I wasted their time, again.
I don’t think I ever have.
000 here is Australia. First time was a school friend came off his bike and dislocated his kneecap. Second was when I flayed my left arm. Third was when my cousin got home drunk as a skunk after rolling out of a moving taxi and getting pretty banged up. Fourth was to report a fire on the side of the highway during bushfire season.
In Australia we don’t have to pay thousands of dollars for an ambulance or for medical care. My friend who dislocated his kneecap was taken to hospital free of charge and had a quick surgery and immobilisation of the knee.
When I flayed my arm it was a fairly gory laceration down to the bone and required surgery to fix.
Overall the staff were extremely professional and understood what was happening quickly. They provided great advice and organised for help to arrive promptly. My experience with the ambulance was great, same with the whole hospital system, and I am happy to pay taxes for it.
I was 12 and I was on my way home from school. I saw an outbuilding in a neighbor’s yard on fire, so I ran home and called 911. It had already been reported, and the firefighters managed to contain it.
The first time I called 911 was actually to avoid being involved in/the victim of a crime.
I (~16m) was walking home very late at night with a friend, when a pickup truck passed us on the road, then suddenly pulled over blocking the sidewalk ~10m ahead of us.
4 guys got out and began to walk towards us rather aggressively.
I pulled out my phone and very loudly said ‘Hey google, Dial 911’.
All 4 stopped in their tracks. My friend and I didn’t stop; we walked around them and then their truck, and continued onto a path vehicles couldn’t follow, then we took off running as soon as we had rounded the corner out of sight.
For the record; I learned that day, google assistant won’t actually dial emergency numbers for you. (that may have changed, it’s been a long time and I’m not going to play with testing that) I’m really glad this encounter didn’t end poorly because apparently I hadn’t actually called for help.
These days at least some voice assistants can do it, I’ve gotten 911 calls that way. Might depend on the phone and software version.
Also fall or accident detections from someone dropping their phones.
And some phones have a setting where it’ll initiate a 911 call if you press the power button 5 times or something like that.
Always a good idea to take a few minutes to go through your phones settings to see which of these features you have turned on and whether you actually should have those turned on. You wouldn’t believe the amount of butt dials we get.
Also a reminder that deactivated phones without service can still call 911, a lot of people give their old phones to little kids to play with and we get a lot of calls that way. And little kids sometimes say some wild stuff, so you might just get fire engines showing up at your house because a kid said some magic words and we have to err on the side of caution.
And since I’m on that topic now, every agency varies a bit. Until fairly recently where I work, we could ignore most butt dials if we didn’t hear anything suspicious, but they recently changed that policy, so now as long as we have a decent location ping from your phone, we’re dispatching officers to all of them and have to call them back. I don’t think most of our departments put a whole lot of effort into trying to track people down, mostly they drive through the neighborhood looking for anything suspicious, and maybe try calling back themselves, but it’s still kind of a waste of time in most cases.
At my agency though, if you call accidentally but stay on the line and confirm there’s no emergency, we can still ignore it as long as we don’t hear anything suspicious going on. The second you hang up though without making contact, we have to enter the call, and try calling you back.
Protip- if we call you back, you don’t really have to answer or answer any questions if you do. But if you answer we have to try to verify your location, and if you give us that, a cops may still gonna come knocking at your door even if we tell them you said there was no emergency. Some cops and departments will take it at face value and disregard from there but it’s out of our hands at that point.
You’re not gonna get in trouble for an accidental call, it’s not a big deal, I get dozens, maybe hundreds of them every day. But if you want to avoid the aggravation, either stay on the line or ignore any incoming calls.
Again, those policies will vary a bit from one agency to another, I can only speak for where I work.
the power button emergency mode is soo useless to me, I’ve only ever accedentaly used it and i can’t turn it off on a Samsung device only change it from 112 to 911 to hopefully have it not call an emergency number in my country.
Not exactly 911, but somewhat similar. A few years ago my wife & I were in a rental SUV while on vacation. It was a fairly new car with only something like 2000 miles on it. We were in the third lane of a 4 lane highway when a drunk driver hit us from behind with almost no warning. It caused our car to spin 360 degrees across 3 lanes before coming to a stop in the breakdown lane.
Within about 5 seconds of the car coming to a stop we heard a voice asking if we’d been in an accident and were we ok. It turns out the rental car had one of those OnStar types of services. We were so pumped full of adrenaline that it was all just a blur as we tried to remember what highway we were on, near what exit, etc. We were so panicked… Luckily a state trooper on a routine patrol stopped maybe a minute later so we didn’t have to keep trying to figure out how to tell the OnStar person where we were.
My model female cousin (usually most of those details wouldn’t matter, but they sort of do in this anecdote) once broke down on the side of the road in broad daylight. Apparently someone, a man, pulled over and offered to help her, but then immediately started attempting to abduct her.
I was a kid when all of this happened, so all I know is what I overheard my mom saying on the phone when relaying the story to someone else; but apparently the cousin in question decided “I’m either going to die here or get away, I’m not going to let him take me.” From my memory of this secondhand story, she screamed, shouted and struggled, but was entirely ignored by everyone traveling the busy highway where she’d broken down. Eventually an off-duty cop (this was in the late nineties, I think) stopped at the side of the road and rescued her. I don’t know what happened after (except that said cousin is still around).
I’m proud of her for defending herself. So was my mom, which is why I overheard that story.
What if there first time I called 911 I didn’t have to call 911?
When I was 6, I decided it was time for my 4 year old brother to learn how to call 911. We were in like a filenes basement or something, and while my mom was shopping, wandered to the back of the store, and in the hallway with the bathrooms there was a payphone. So I picked it up, showed him how to dial 911, then handed him the receiver, told him that when someone picked up to say what was wrong, answer their questions, etc. I had no idea you could call 911 without a dime on a payphone, so when he started talking, I thought he was pretending. He said something like ‘hey, im hurt, and i dont know… were in a store.’ At that point some lady came into the hallway and was giving us a dirty look, so I hung up the phone and took him back to where my mom was.
Shortly afterward, we moved stores. Again I took spotted a random payphone, and took the opportunity to educate my sibling. This time he dialed, and told them hed fallen down, and bonked his head and was in a random store, surrounded by clothes. We then hung up and went to go find some toys to play with.
After that, it was time for lunch. When we went to food court, we noticed there were tons of cops everywhere. My mom said something about it, and my brother chipped in, ‘maybe its cus I told them i booked my head!’ And I told him ‘no silly, that was pretend, remember?’ And he said 'oh yeah…" and that was that.
Hahaha my story is similar but not nearly as fun.
I went for a walk, back in those days “go outside and play” meant I don’t want to see you until the sun goes down, so I walked to strip mall where the video rental store we went to at the time was, as well as a few other places and a safeway we shopped at.
I was however old you would be between grade 2 and 5, and started playing with a phone. And kind yourself I thought you had to put money in it for it to work. I knew how to read and PAYphone seemed pretty self explanatory so I started pressing buttons pretending to call people. Well I had learned about 9-1-1 recently so I pressed those numbers and kept playing around. Well I didn’t have the headset near me but I did realize afterwards i did hear a voice though not what they were saying.
It wasn’t until I heard the sirens that i clued into why I was hearing them. I definately ran away thinking the cops were looking for me, so I ran into the bush where I knew some places to hide because of course the cops knew who I was and that it was me who used the phone without paying and they were looking for me to be arrested and that I was gonna go to jail forever if they caught me. They didn’t because I was so good at hiding if course
In hindsight, I should have called it when a gang of thugs broke into my home, stole my medicine, tied me up, and threatened to make me their prisoner to be raped for over a decade, but at the time it seemed like I could not call the police on those thugs because those thugs were the police.
