Have you actually called 911?

propellerhead

Golden Member
Apr 25, 2001
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I have, once. I saw a grass fire in the median while driving on I-35. I called the 1-800 number to the Texas Dept Of Public Safety and they told me to call 911 so I get the fire department of the local area. So I did.

Have you called 911 ever?
 

ElFenix

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Mar 20, 2000
102,414
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once. a bud's car was broken in to in the city of austin parking garage while we were out drinking.

free garage, no one parks in it though.
 

Jzero

Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
18,834
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Twice.
Once when I crashed my car.

The other, I was in the parking lot heading into the mall when I heard this lady freaking out "Help! OMG someone help me! Please!"
I look over and there is an older woman laying on back and another woman kneeling beside her. It was a good 50 yds to them, and also 50 yds to the area where the pay phones were (this is "back in the day" before everyone carried cellphones :) ), so I made the judgement call that I could see something was wrong, and time may be critical, so instead of running over there, investigating, and then running all the way to the phone, so instead I would run to the phone and call 911.

Which I did.

After calling for help, I ran back over to where they were, and a mall security worker was treating the woman with a portable oxygen tank. I told her that I had called 911 and an ambulance was on the way.

THAT FVCKING BIOTCH ACTUALLY ROLLED HER EYES AND ACTED ANNOYED! She said "Well, we don't need an ambulance," and very snotty.

At the time I was 17. Now I am older and wiser and I seriously would have given her a hell of a tongue lashing for crying for help in a public place and then acting rude to the people who respond to those cries. I could have just ignored her, but instead I chose to act out of the concern that someone's life was act stake, and I am repaid by rudeness?

*sigh*
 

Viper GTS

Lifer
Oct 13, 1999
38,107
433
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Once.

I was driving home from work, in the dark, & some guy was wandering in & out of traffic. Basically on the side of the road there was the fog line, a bike lane, a sidewalk, and then a fence on the far side of the sidewalk. He was stumbling back & forth between the fence & several feet within the fog line, several times walking into the path of traffic.

I called 911 & told them that some drunk idiot was going to get himself killed.

Viper GTS
 

propellerhead

Golden Member
Apr 25, 2001
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Originally posted by: Jzero
After calling for help, I ran back over to where they were, and a mall security worker was treating the woman with a portable oxygen tank. I told her that I had called 911 and an ambulance was on the way.

THAT FVCKING BIOTCH ACTUALLY ROLLED HER EYES AND ACTED ANNOYED! She said "Well, we don't need an ambulance," and very snotty.

At the time I was 17. Now I am older and wiser and I seriously would have given her a hell of a tongue lashing for crying for help in a public place and then acting rude to the people who respond to those cries. I could have just ignored her, but instead I chose to act out of the concern that someone's life was act stake, and I am repaid by rudeness?

*sigh*

She probably didn't want to get billed by her insurance company. You still did good, though.
 

OutHouse

Lifer
Jun 5, 2000
36,413
616
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I have a few times on my cell.

a couple of times for loose cows along side the road. and one time for a herd of horses that got out. I was driving home and i saw about 9 horses running toward the road. I thought they were in the pasture but they were really on the dirt road between two pastures. I realized this when 4 of them came right out onto the road and im going about 65 MPH. I had to lock up my little Geo or i would have hit one of them. one of the horses was so spooked by the sound of my tires squealing on the road he lost his footing and fell.

The pucker factor on that one lasted several hours... because about 2 months earilier a dude was killed not far from my town. The cow that ran in front him and came right through the windshield...

 

brxndxn

Diamond Member
Apr 3, 2001
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I've called it about 10 times and all of them were very necessary.


I'll elaborate on two:

Once, a guy was riding his bicycle accross a street (the sign said walk) and some lady wasn't paying attention and hit him while making a right turn. This happened right in front of my friend and I. He fell off his bike and the lady stopped and tried to act like it wasn't her fault. The man asked me to call 911 because he thought his ankle was broken - I could clearly see that it was.

I saw an accident in the middle of a busy street where a van was side-swiped and it stopped across two lanes of northbound traffic. There were a bunch of kids in the van and the mother was telling them all to stay in the van while it was still sitting across two lanes (very idiotic). I called 911 right away.
 

CurtCold

Golden Member
Aug 15, 2002
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I called once, when my drunk a$$ed brother in law was hittn' my sister. Kinda scarry, cause when I called it rang about 3 times, I had to repeat everything about 3 times. Glad someone wasn't trying to chop my head off, cause they never woulda been there on time. Once they got going though (3-4) mins later they did a good job. Wierd how when your in one of those situations that 1 min seems like 10 hours.
 

stev0

Diamond Member
Dec 9, 2001
5,132
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a few times from my cell... just reporting people that are either drunk or appear drunk.
 

AreaCode707

Lifer
Sep 21, 2001
18,440
101
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Called 911 when our house had an electrical fire. The operator was good, and they responded really quickly, considering we're so up and out of the town, hard to find. The spotter truck and first fire truck found us, np, but the second fire truck missed the turn accidentally and went too far. They did a terrific job, all in all.
 

vi edit

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Oct 28, 1999
62,381
8,131
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Once. I caught a couple guys scoping out houses to hit on easter weekend. There was one guy in a blazer that would drive around and drop off another guy who walk around the houses looking for places of entry. I called 911 and they sent out the cops to find them. They guys took off when they saw me and the cops didn't end up finding them :(
 

AU Tiger

Diamond Member
Dec 26, 1999
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Twice.

I called for an traffic light that was out. Thought it was wierd at the time, but the phone book instructed me to call 911 for malfunctioning traffic lights and they took the information.

Second time, my wife was in a hit and run car accident and she wanted to report the accident to police. She was told to go back to the spot of the accident and call 911.

Since that time they now have a non-emergency number to call in our area. I forget what the three digits are.
 

xospec1alk

Diamond Member
Mar 4, 2002
4,329
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once when i was stuck on the GWB, and it took me a couple times cuz NY/NJ highway people kept hanging up on me...i felt bad tho cuz it wasn't really an emergency
 

CPA

Elite Member
Nov 19, 2001
30,322
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Yes, last week to report a drunk driver on I-10 in Houston. Took transfers to three different police jurisdictions, but we finally nailed him.
 

Parrotheader

Diamond Member
Dec 22, 1999
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Probably over a dozen times, although all except two were by mistake. The prefix for my parents house is 991 so it's easy to make the mistake in misdialing. You realize what you've done when it starts to ring before you finish the last 4 digits. They call you RIGHT back to check and see if anything's wrong. They've always been polite and understanding. I suppose it happens all the time in this area. My cell phone also starts with 919 so my wife has done the same thing a few times lately.

The only two REAL times I've ever called:

1) My dad passed out in the shower about 10 years ago early in the morning and my mom had me call while she attended to him. It turned out to be nothing serious and the paramedics were there within 2 minutes. He pretty much just fainted, but it was still a little scary.

2) Coming home from college one weekend I noticed everybody in front of me on the Interstate was pulling off to the shoulder. Suddenly I saw why. There was a car coming the WRONG way down the interstate. This was in a relatively rural area at night although traffic was still pretty heavy. If some poor person met them going the other way at the top of hill they would've been killed. I called 911 to let them know and there were already aware of it although they did want to get my position since they were tracking the lunatic and wanted to know where to route the state troopers.
 

AU Tiger

Diamond Member
Dec 26, 1999
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Forgot a third time I had to call 911. I was at work showing some code to another guy and realized he was being quiet. Looked back and he had his eyes closed. Thought he had fallen asleep at first, but he wouldn't wake up. He was a diabetic and his blood sugar had fallen too low. The paramedics showed up and put this nasty sugary gel down his throat. It still took him 30 minutes before he knew what had happened to him and they took him to the emergency room because he couldn't answer their questions to their satisfaction.
 

silent tone

Golden Member
Oct 9, 1999
1,571
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Only once, when I was in high school. My house was shot up with a 9mm around 3 or 4 am. I slept through it, but my dad told me to call. I wasn't much help to the operator with my slurred, groggy speech.
 

budice

Banned
Sep 5, 2002
95
0
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Lot's of times. Fighting neighbors. People running through my yard. Friend that is a girl with a jealous drunk husband when she had a friend over and I'm talking to them on the phone. Quite a few times recently when I see people driving recklessly, like they're drunk. I called local police but they told me to call 911 for proper dispatch.
 

propellerhead

Golden Member
Apr 25, 2001
1,160
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I find it interesting how a lot of the local services seem to direct you to call 911 instead. On the other hand, you hear all these accounts of how the 911 telephone exchange is so overloaded.

Weird.
 

Platypus

Lifer
Apr 26, 2001
31,053
321
136
Twice, both times I was on hold for upwards of 3 minutes.

That's utter bullsh^t in my opinion, if someone was having a heart attack, they would have been dead.