Calling 911---tell us your stories

[nhn2a]

I've called the cops twice. First time I was driving back from hunting and pulled behind an SUV. It was all over the road, going really slow at times then speeding up and driving on and off the road. I called the cops and continued to follow at a distance until I saw a cop pull behind them. I told them I didnt need a follow up call and never heard for certain but I was pretty confident the driver was drunk which is pretty bad at 11am. I kind of wish I had asked for a follow up.

The other time I called 911 on my neighbors. I could hear screaming at around 11pm at night with the TV on in my room. It turned out it was my next door neighbors standing in the middle of an intersection arguing. They were across the street and on the opposite side of the house so very loud for me to hear them in my room. I was more annoyed because my kids were asleep and they were outside on of their windows. I watched for a bit from the Window with my pistol to make sure no one was in immediate danger. The husband would scream something at his wife and run off then come crawling down the street on his knees where the wife would scream at him and shove him. This went on for a few iterations before I called 911. There were a lot of neighbors on their porch watching so I almost fell into the "someone else probably called" scenario but decided to call anyway. The cops were dispatched and after about 10 minutes arrived and arrested both of them. A friend of my is a Captain on the police force and told me the backstory at church the next day when I mentioned I called the cops and why. Apparently they had gotten physical before going outside so there was some scratches and blood was drawn so both got arrested for assault. It was a Friday night so they got the pleasure of spending the weekend in jail. Odd part is I have not physically seen either of them since that happened and it was over a year ago. The house just came up for sale on the market so I'm assuming they have decided to go their separate ways.

 

[MJE2083]

Second day of pheasant season here, we had a gentlemen in the hunting party collapse with a seizure. Luckily, my friend and I saw him collapse. My buddy rolled him on his side and watched him to make sure he didn't choke on his own vomit, I ran to the top of a hill to get cell service and call 911. His eyes had rolled back in his head and he wasn't responsive in any way. He was foaming at the mouth and completely rigid. We were roughly 50 miles from the closest town with a hospital. Luckily we had another guy waiting on the county road to pick us up at the end of the walk. I gave them directions to his rig, and told them he would lead them into the field we were hunting. They were able to make it to us in about 30 minutes from the original call, which I felt was pretty good given the location and circumstances. Luckily, the guy came out of the seizure and was fine within a couple of hours.

It was a tense morning. It made me realize the importance of knowing road names and landmarks in that situation.

Within the last year or two, they recently started assigning street address' to various hunting/fishing access parking lots in my area. They posted nice big signs with the address at each one. I imagine that makes everything a lot easier for first responders.

 

[MJE2083]

If there is one thing I have learned recently, at least in my area, is that 911 wants a physical address. As others have said, knowing where you are at can make a lot of difference. I think with today's technology people take this for granted and think that 911 can automatically get a GPS coordinate from their phone. While I'm sure that some places have this technology, not everyone does, or at the very least it's not something that's easily calculated.

I've called for a couple of instances recently(mostly minor things related to my work) where I had a hell of a time trying to explain where exactly I was without knowing the actual address.

 

[kansasdad]

I called again this week. That makes three times this fall. I'm ready to go on a long break from calling.

kansasson and I went out to see about getting his first archery deer without success. After getting back to the car, I wanted to see if we could glass up some deer that I suspected were bedding off of the wildlife area. Driving to our vantage spot, we did find two does and a decent buck on the move.

In the adjacent pasture, a flatbed truck with a cake feeder on it was being mobbed by three dozen angus. What was a bit strange was that the gate to the field was wide open, so I presumed that the driver knew the cattle would come over to where he was dropping the feed, and he could get out of the field before any escape was made.

As we watched the deer running across the prairie, I also watched to see if we could see any human movement out by the feed truck. Bringing the binoculars to play, I asked kansasson to see if the truck cab looked fogged in. Nope. Slowly driving down the county "road", we kept watching to see if the truck moved, or to catch a glance of a person nearby in the pasture.

Several scenarios ran through my mind as to what had happened here, but i couldnt shake the idea that something was amiss with the gate wide open.

Before calling, I made sure of our street name and location (thanks Google maps!) and i also was prepared relay our gps coordinates if asked. I also texted Mrs kansasdad before calling, so when Verizon notified her that a 911 call had been made, she would know that everything was alright with her two boys.

The 911 operators first question was indeed my address, so when i told here I was 2500 feet east of Cole Creek road, and the cross street, she wasnt thrilled, again asking me for an address. When I told her I was in cattle country, surrounded by pastures, she went on the ask my to describe the emergency.

Telling her that i found it quite unusual for a ranchhand to leave a gate wide open to a field full of cows, and then seeing no one around the feedtruck, I decided to call. I also informed her that it was my intention to leave the public right of way and cross into private land to close the gate.

She told me that she would inform the deputy, and leave it up to him to further investigate. Learning from past calls, I was ready to say yes if asked if I wanted a callback, but the question wasnt asked.

 

[kansasdad]

I'm really ready to be done with calling 911 for sometime, please??

Driving home with Mrs kansasdad on the Kansas Turnpike, cruise control set to 75, and up ahead I saw a sedan approach what at first I though was a semi, but it turns out it was a school bus. The sedan was traveling much faster than the bus, and before it completely rear ended the bus, I saw a flash of brake lights, and then the sedan swerved towards the passing lane. This action had the same effect as a police car performing a PIT maneuver. The medium sized school bus turned sideways to the lane, and then the front wheels went up over the barrier, sparks and concrete flying, it crossed the eastbound lanes and ended up front wheels over the guardrail, with a portion of the rear of the bus still in the outer lane of the turnpike.

Breaking hard, I pulled over and turned on my hazard flashing lights as I reached for my cell phone to call 911. Telling the operator that there was a two car collision on the interstate, including a school bus, I saw that the sedan had a lost its front bumper, and had a smashed front windshield. It had no light source, and as it was well after sunset, our southbound lanes were dark except for my headlights.

The 911 operator wanted to know our location, and as fortune would have it, the turnpike milemarker 71.4, just a half a mile of the east El Dorado exit was narrowly missed by the bus as it crossed the median barrier. South bound traffic was screaming past at full speed, with many vehicles failing to switch lanes to the passing lane, in spite of my flashing hazard lights. Northbound traffic had little notification of the accident site, as it was just over the crest of the hill where the bus came to rest on the safety guard.

Movement came from the sedan, as a person emerged from the driver's side door, and it appeared that they crawled over the guardrail into the grass. I never saw movement around the bus, and as I was busy answering the 911 operator's questions, I failed to comprehend what was going on in the Northbound lanes. Cars and trucks crested the hill, only to see a school bus hanging it rear end in the outer land of traffic, with presumably large amounts of debris from the concrete barrier and bus parts. The first vehicle through shot up sparks and drug a large vehicle part for some time as it pulled over to the shoulder of the highway. Second, third and fourth cars also must have hit debris, and they also slowed down/stopped on the shoulder.

A couple of minutes passed, and a semi-truck side swiped or rear ended a car that had slowed down considerably as it passed the bus, and these vehicles then coasted down the hill and pulled over onto the shoulder.

Giving my name and phone number to the operator, I told him that I could hear sirens far away. The operator said that he had all the info from me that was needed, and told me that I was free to remove myself from danger. Waiting for another semi to pass by, I pulled out into the passing lane, to see and hear multiple approaching emergency vehicles from the city of El Dorado headed out way. Proceeding further, we saw two flashing lights, and briefly heard the sirens of two Highway Trooper cars as they passed at an extreme rate of speed.

News update: local stations are reporting no injuries. People who believe miracles never happen would have a hard time explaining a lack of injury. Massive miracle

 

[Rancho Loco]

Best reaction I've gotten from a 911 operator - Not long ago I was working down in the Yellowstone Club, and SOP was to gather our forces out at 4 corners and carpool down the Gallatin Canyon Racetrack for a 7am start time. My route took me west on Bozeman trail, Kagy, right on 19th, left on College, left on Main street and blast down Huffine at a rate of speed greatly exceeding the limit. As I get to Main from College, I look across the road into the Gallatin Valley mall.. And in the gathering light of an early summer morning, there's a moose walking across the parking lot. Well, my first glance was followed by a second and third glance because you don't usually expect to see a moose cruising through town. I get the green light and zip into the parking lot and herd it away from main and call 911 on my cell. "What's your emergency?" "There's a moose in the mall parking lot. and.." "Sir. Are you.." Yeah, I'm sure it sounded a bit weird and maybe/probably drunken..

I keep herding it as it browses through the trees and try my best to explain to the operator I'm not drunk and I'm not kidding. And I also explained Marvin the Moose was likely to try and get back across main street which at 5 am was mainly being driven by construction workers going way too fast, and there was great likelihood it was going to not end well for someone and the moose. At that point she told me the cops were on the way, but I could tell in her voice she still thought this was the product of a night of drinking. I turned out of the parking lot and hoped for the best..

It turned out to be a bit of a rodeo.

https://www.bozemandailychronicle.c...cle_e2947d9e-da2b-11e2-bc6e-0019bb2963f4.html

 

[gouch]

I wasn’t actually the one who called 911 but we were driving along a country road going home from a hunting trip. We really didn’t pay any attention to the car several hundred feet in front of us as it disappeared around a particularly nasty S curve but as we came around the curve we saw the car upside down right in the middle of the road. A woman coming the other direction was getting out of her car already calling 911. As we all converged on the car we were relieved to see the 16 year old boy crawling out of the broken side window, pretty much unharmed except some scratches and bruises. We went back to the beginning of the curve to slow traffic and avoid another collision. It turned out that the boy lived a couple of miles up the road and the gal calling 911 was a neighbor so she called the kids mom. As we were waiting for the first responders to come mom showed up in a panic, franticly asking if her boy was OK. We told her he was fine and she thanked God and ran up to comfort him. Then dad showed up asking the same question. We said he was shook up but not hurt. All dad said was “I’m going to kill him”

After the fire department showed up we left having a good laugh at the difference between a mothers reaction and that of a father.

 

[NR_Hunter]

Not a 911 story but a dude in boundary waters died last fall and I was quite possibly the last person to see him alive. I called and left a message with a local investigator last week when I saw the news report that his campsite and possible remains had been discovered but he never called me back. Must be a real Mickey Mouse club for a sherriffs department in the north woods.

 

[Oak]

Almost 3 months ago my 16 year old daughter was coming home from work at 8:30 PM. She stopped to put gas in her car. She doesn't have a credit card so has to prepay. She walked right into an armed robbery in progress. The man with the gun had just finished making the female clerk expose herself to him, while at gunpoint. He cleaned out the cash register and took a carton of cigarettes, then my daughter walked in the door. He held her at gunpoint, she handed over her $20 and luckily he ran out of the store.

My daughter was remarkably clear headed and comforted the clerk and helped her call her manager who called 911.

Prior to police arriving at the scene, my daughter immediately got in her car and drove home. She came unglued in the driveway and went into shock. She called me from her car, sitting in the driveway.

We called 911, they asked us to go back to the scene of the crime.

Upon arriving at the scene, our Montrose CO Police Department announced that they had the suspect in custody. The police force here are top notch people.

I have wished so many times that it had been me in place of my daughter. That would have been a happy time in my life.

We have since been to court 2 times. Next week will hopefully be the last.

It could have turned out a dozen different ways, all for the worse. I thank God that my daughter was calm and collected that night.

I see that he was sentenced to 8 years in prison Monday.

 

[Mallardsx2]

I was going early season goose hunting and drove up on an accident at 4:00AM. A truck was flipped on its side. Some drunk teenager had T-boned a guy (teenager was fast asleep behind his wheel when we checked on him...assumed he was dead but then he came to and tried to run by my dad snatched his little ass up...). Its hard to recognize what something is when its on its side. I will never forget my dad saying "What the hell is that?" We got to within 20 feet of this thing and realized it was "a truck!!". I kicked out the windshield and pulled the guy to safety. (Ordinary guy trying to drive to work) His tools were lying everywhere for 100 yards. Everyone survived. The kid that T-boned him ended up with a myserious black eye and the cops arrested him. lol True story. I was there.

 

[birdman27]

I have only had to call twice. One was a domestic dispute outside my house with lots of yelling at night. The other, however, is a much better story.

When I was in high school in Reno, my buddy and I decided to climb Mt. Rose one fine summer day (not unusual for us). I was recovering from a cold, so was on the fence, but we decided to go in the morning and took our bikes to ride up the access rode to the main trail, rather than walk it. The hike was its normal gorgeous self, with great views all around. We reached the top and had a snack, then noticed a guy running around frantically on the secondary peak. Being young and naive, of course we went to investigate. Turns out, this guy and his SO had decided to make the hike that morning after partying all night in Tahoe, having just gotten there from sea level. They also didnt pack any water... So, we get over there and the lady is passed out, dead to the world and he is running around trying to find snow to melt for water. We run and grab our gear and get into action. My buddy pulls out his first aid kit and rummages through it while I call 911. The call was amazing. They asked where I was, I responded "On the top of Mt Rose". They informed me that prank calling 911 was a crime. I insisted we had an unconscious lady and was indeed on top of the mountain. This back and forth continued for a few minutes until they finally believed me and sent the chopper. During this time, my buddy found and ammonia smeller and cracked it and brought the lady back to consciousness, but she was still completely out of it. We got some water and gatorade into her and she started to have basic function as the chopper was landing, right on top of the mountain. The crew got out and were taking off their helmets and I swear to god one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen took off her helmet and shook her hair out. I can still see it in slow-mo in my brain. Anyways, they are working with the lady and we are shooting the shit with the pilot when the boyfriend tries to convince us they dont need a flight out, we can just help carry the lady down the mountain. Hell no! They finally convince him that they need to take her and he takes off down the mountain, saying "I'm a trail runner". We were fully expecting to find him broken on trail, but he made it safely. Turns out she had other medical issues and they never should have attempted that hike. Finally, when it was all over, this other dude who had been watching the whole thing proceeds to get super stoned and ask us to walk with him a ways down the mountain so he doesnt fall or anything. We get him to the safer part of the trail and split ways, then pass the boyfriend on our bikes on the way out. Thus ended one of the weirdest and most story worthy experiences of my life. I love Mt. Rose.

 

[bobbydean]

I called once at work. Night time pharmacist and guy walked up with note that he had a bomb and wanted all the Oxycontin.

Took a minute, and the redhead temper took over. I flipped the note in the air and walked over to the phone and called 911 and he ran. If it had been a gun in my face, I would have packed to Oxycontin in a suitcase. No one believes a bomb. I also had a counter between me and the supposed bomb.

Lucky that I did not get fired. Did everything security tells you not to.

I do have a blackout temper ( only a few occasions and this was one of them). Went to PD to identify pictures of probable thief. Even after watching a poor video of the event, could not positively identify the thief. One, I was sure was the one. Not 100%; could not put him away.

 

[T Bone]

I see that he was sentenced to 8 years in prison Monday.

True story.

My daughter and the C store employee did a great job taking the stand and making statements.

It was an emotion charged courtroom.

The legal system is certainly flawed, but in this case, at this point in time, it appears it has worked well.

8 years + 3 years probation fit the crime, IMO.

 

[Irrelevant]

I called in a couple of drunk drivers but the only actual emergency was a truck towing a trailer in front of me down the freeway lost control and swerved, then over corrected and ended up flipping. I was one of two cars right behind them. I grabbed my phone and called 119, waited, then realized what I did, I actually had to say it out loud. 9-1-1. Thankfully everyone was okay, all seat belts worked. The old man driving did have to go change his pants in the bushes.

 

[RobG]

I called in two drunk drivers. Police busted them both. Glad they take that stuff seriously.

 

[kansasdad]

I felt the need to call 911 again yesterday. Driving home from a turkey outing, I had stopped at a gas station for fuel. As the fuel was flowing, I looked down to see a ring laying there. Picking it up, I tried to imagine how it came to be there, and looking at the size of the stones, guessed that someone was already crying or about to be crying as she realized her engagement band wasn't where she thought it to be. Weighing my options, I texted Mrs kansasdad seeking verification that my thinking was wise.

I could have taken it inside and left it with the clerk, I could have thought "finder keepers, losers weepers" and pocketed the ring, or call 911 and ask for assistance. Mrs k agreed that calling 911 gave the rightful owner the best opportunity to get their ring back. No offense to any gas station attendant, but I thought the chances of the clerk pocketing the ring, especially in light of the value of the ring as something to be considered. I will tell you that momentarily a wrong voice in my head encouraged me to keep the presumably valuable ring.

Instead I called 911. I apologized for using the 911 line, and explained why I was calling. Taking my name, phone number, the 911 dispatch told me that an officer would be en route soon. The officer showed up shortly later, and as I stepped out of my car in glasses and mask, I felt for the policeman. Here was a middle aged dude looking like he had been turkey hunting all day approaching him.......to hand off a lost and found ring. He pulled his little Columbo style note pad our of his shirt pocket and took down my name, phone number, address and occupation. When I told him I was a self employed dentist, I think I saw him ever so slightly raise an eyebrow as he hadn't pegged me for a healing arts kind of guy.

The plan is to call the localities police station on Monday to make certain that the ring has been placed in a lost and found report (not suspecting the cop of pocketing the ring for himself, but just because I've watched too many Matlock and Dateline episodes!). I hope that the real owner can be found and reunited with her ring. But if not, I might have a long list of wished for items to be added to ol' kansasdad's hunting and fishing equipment list.

 

[BearFoot]

About to go to bed late one evening, I logged in for one last view of a business. A couple with cutting equipment, was committing a break-in. I dialed 911. Watching Live video, cops roll up, chase, I see a dude lock up, ponytail straight out, when hit by taser, its awesome. Scumbag down, with felony charges.

 

[Mudder]

I was driving down a stretch of largely deserted interstate in my pickup, I was doing ten over the speed limit and had my illegal 100-watt roof lights on, when I see a mattress lying in the fast lane. I swerved two lanes right and passed the mattress, then saw some guy running back down the fast lane towards the mattress (waving his arms in the air), then what was apparently his wife (Muslim headscarf) doing the same, running down the fast lane towards the mattress (waving her arms in the air), then three children in a row maybe 8, 6 and four years old chasing Moma (waving their arms in the air). And then I rolled right past a totally dark car (no lights at all) parked in the fast lane. I stopped and called 911. No idea if they made it or not, I heard the siren from the Cop car and left. I did check the Newspapers for the next few days and didn't see anything.

 

[Europe]

I have called a few times. The one that I stayed involved with the dispatcher, was when I saw a fellow take a horse from horse show that was not his. I called the dispatcher and told her I witnessed a horse theft and was following him. As I told her where we were at every minute or so, she commented that we were running those horses pretty fast and to be careful. I told her that actually he had put the horse in his horse trailer and I was following him in my truck. ---"oh, o.k., officers are on the way"

Does SOS count ?

I helped a family at sea one evening, when I noticed their running lights, were blinking ... ___ ... They were pretty happy to see me, as their electronic's had gone kaput

 

[Dsnow9]

Man, I feel like I’m in the @kansasdad realm of calling if not way more. Growing up in the Eagle County, Colorado area I called 911 for rollover or major accidents 5 times before I graduated high school. No major injuries but had to help get people out of cars on two of those occasions, two were in the rear view mirror, and one was in a spot I could not safely stop. Three calls for accidents growing up, two of them were self induced on ice and required a tow truck to get out of a ditch, one I was sideswiped.

Now for the fun ones. I have had to call after finding a dead person overdosed along the river in a Denver park. 911 dispatcher tried to get us to administer cpr. I did not, when FD showed up the determined him “bottled” from 20’ away. They did not check vitals, it was obvious.

Witnessed a group of three guys and a get away driver breaking into cars on my street after the dogs woke me up. Didn’t feel like being Rambo with four of them so I called. Described what was going on and walked the 911 dispatchers through how to get them. Dispatcher relayed the plan and they came in lights off and cornered them. They were in the car and floored it through someone’s yard to avoid the road block. One of the officers said they were going 90 by the time they ran the first red light 2 blocks away. Never caught them.

Now for the knee cap stories...

Used to guide zip line tours, had a great zip line where people could run and jump off the cliff. A nice gentleman decided to make a big jump and do a knee drop, came up short on the edge of the cliff and ripped his knee cap off. Ambulance came right into the course.

I shattered a knee cap on a tree in a very secluded, tight, band of trees while snowboarding. It was the first week of April and the week before the mountain closed. Being in the mountain had to call the ski patrol so basically 911 on the mountain. No way to describe where I was without inducing a search party. Called the person I was riding with and had to explain where I ducked into the trees and to follow my track. The only one. He led patrol in and as they showed up I realized I knew two out of five of the patrollers. After giving me shit, they splinted me up and went for the ride in the meat wagon down to the bottom of the hill. They all made sure to thank me for the secret stash of powder that they discovered because of the accident. Said it was the best snow they had been on in a month. He slid up well after surgery.

Last one, as an arborist the job can be challenging and we are always managing a certain level of risk. A coworker slipped and dislocated his knee cap and it got pinned out of place and wouldn’t go back in. As I got out of my tree and climbed into his I called 911 and directed them to where I was and had someone meet them at the edge of the park and guide them in. I had to get him out of the tree so emt’s could do their work. A high angle rescue team is usually over 30 min out even in the city. I had to lock his leg straight to keep it from trying to tear the patella tendon apart because of how the knee cap was stuck. It was a challenge but got him to the ground before the ambulance arrived.

I’m sure there are more but those are the ones that came to mind right away....