So I Called 911 Tonight...

[TenFiftyFour]

I had to call once. A few years back I was playing with my little sister who was 2 at the time. She was laying on the floor and the rest of my family was in the room. She is on her back and I'm making her laugh pretty hard doing something silly. Then I notice shes turning red. At first I thought it was just from laughing. Then I realize she's not breathing. My mom sees this too and enters panic mode. I call 911 as mom goes through the procedure to see if she's choking. Within seconds I hear the ambulance on the street behind my house (station is right there). At this point my sister's lips are turning blue and my mom is fully freaking out. Then, just as the EMTs rush in, my sister lets out a few coughs and begins to breathe again. They take her to the hospital for some tests and find nothing wrong. The consensus is that she choked on saliva from laughing while laying down. Major relief.

[gilper]

I’ve called twice.

The first time I called was after I moved into a new apartment and was unpacking when I heard a commotion outside. I look out to see some kid around 13 about to get a beat down from a small group wielding bats and knives. I called 911 and as I'm on the phone two guys in pink shirts with popped collars break it up. The cops show up literally 90 seconds later.

The second time I was driving home after a storm and the power was out which means that none of the traffic lights were working. I was on the main road, two lanes northbound and I'm in the right lane. I'm slowing down at every intersection to check for cars. As I approach the next intersection I notice a car on the right so I stop. She sees that I'm stopping and pulls out into traffic. Just then a car barrels past on my left and t-bones this woman. I immediately dial 911.

I learned something interesting on the second call. When you dial 911 on a cell phone it connects to the call center for the phones area code. The 911 operator said she couldn’t do anything and had to transfer me to the correct call center. That seems pretty odd to me. What if I was traveling or something? Maybe it was because I was in DC near the MD border and my phone is based in MD.

[4_2_it]

I've called 911 once when I saw a traffic accident right in front of me. Everyone said they were fine, but I asked the the operator to send a police car because it was a lot more than a fenderbender. Call lasted about 1 minute.

[icepick]

I've called 911 hundreds of times. Stupid test calls. 911 operators are grouchy and unpleasant people in general.

[AceLuby]

I've had two 911 occurances. First is when I was 8 and my sister called 911 after a weird phone call. Cops came, told us that 911 isn't a game and left. Second time was when I found my dad dead in the bathroom. It took them like 15 min to get to my house. For a 15 mile by 10 mile town you would think they could have a quicker response time.

[miajag]

Only once, to report a drunk driver.

[XXXNoahXXX]

Called 911 when I was driving up to Boston and there was a car in front of me doing 45 on the highway and bumping from median to guardrail, swerving back and forth, back and forth. We were coming up on a busy connection/on ramp, so I called 911 and as the driver started swerving to the right, I blew past, catching the license plate. Thankfully, I made it past, gave 911 operator the plate # and make/model, and then continued on my way. I assume state troopers came and got them.

[HeroInBlack]

I had just gotten into bed when I heard a loud bump outside. I looked out the window and saw a guy breaking into my car. I was in college and my car was worth probably $500. I had bought a radio/CD player from Wal-Mart for like $150 and put it in there, and some [censored] bastard was breaking into the car to steal it. I had my girlfriend call 911 and I ran out onto the porch and cussed and yelled up a storm, but he wasn't intimidated and I was too worried he might have been armed, so I didn't go out there to fight over it. Yeah, I'm a hardcore libertarian and I don't have a gun. Bad idea on my part. Anyway, he took my [censored] little stereo/CD player and this was the one time ever I had left my backpack in the car, so he took it too, including a $200 calculator and maybe a textbook or two. I had her tell the cops what street he was on and what he was wearing, etc. (This was Atlanta, btw, "Home Park," just north of Georgia Tech.) The cop showed about 30 minutes later, and LDO nothing ever came of it. I wound up retiring the car without ever fixing the damage or putting a new radio in it.

In retrospect, not going to confront the guy was probably the best decision. He left a freakin' foot long screwdriver in the car that probably would have been left in my ribcage somewhere if I had gone after him. Also, he bled on the car, apparently cutting himself when he busted out the window, so at least he paid some price. But there's no way he got more than $30 for the crap he stole and I had to pay like 350 or so to replace the calculator and books.

Bastard.

[bwana devil]

my most memorable call came when i visited a friend out of town. we were up late playing guitar and listening to music. we heard a commotion outside the window and looked and there was some guy just outside the window walking around, screaming, firing a shotgun in the air.

we called and within two minutes cops were all over the place. two police cars came barrelling into the lot, the cops positioned themselves behind their cars and opened doors with their guns pointed and screaming at the guy to get down. dude got down on the ground and it ended peacefully. we watched the whole thing unfold about 20 yards away.

[divides_by_zero]

I was sick with a the flu - had a fever for over a week - so the place is a mess and disgusting and whatever. My boyfriend of the time comes in about 3am, falls into bed, and says, "the room just went spinny, I can't move or else I'm going to vomit, you need to call 911."

I'm immediately like, WTF. Also - I have a massive problem with making phone calls, so I inquire further to see if this is necessary, and why can't he make the damn call. He ends up calling his mom, and she says call 911 (she's a pharmacist, but generally a paranoid one). Finally I call.

Within a few minutes some people show up. I hobble to the door and let them in. They go deal with the boy. Sure enough, he barfs upon trying to be moved. We lived on the top floor of our apartment building and he's a big guy so either way he was going to have to be responsible for some of his movement.

Meanwhile I have a fever and feel like crap so I'm over by the open window. Guy comes over to me and starts asking questions about drug use etc. Goes through our cabinets writing down all our prescriptions (we both have ADD so there was a lot of that, plus prozac and various other cold/flu medications). With the place a mess and his weird ass the room is spinning nonsense I'm sure they thought we were junkies. I felt totally embarassed.

Then his mom shows up. With little sister in tow. Ugh. My boyfriend is literally in his tighty whiteys(gross) and I'm in 'jamas. This can't get worse.

They end up finally taking him to the hospital. I find out in the morning he had labrynthitis. I go back to dying on the bed with the flu, asking why he felt he had to one-up my sickness.