Calling 911? Ignorance Isn't an Emergency
In today's edition: Woman furious over botched fried rice order.
April 9, 2009— -- Not getting extra shrimp in your fried rice? Can't figure out how to get out of your car? High as a kite from pot-laced brownies? Looking to find the name of that really cute cop?
Dispatchers who handle 911 calls are trained to handle a lot of situations, but some of the calls they get are anything but emergencies. Life-and-death calls, sure, but the woman who calls to report her missing McNuggets? Not so much.
Every few months, however, audio gets released detailing trivial -- if not ridiculous -- calls to emergency officials.
"We deal with prank calls and people checking in for the time of day," Florida's St. Lucie County Public Safety 911 operations coordinator Tiffany Bennett told ABCNews.com. "When you pick up that phone, you never know what's on the other end."
Her center has also gotten calls asking about holiday parade routes and how to fix a washing machine.
"Of course, you are going to giggle at some of the sillier stuff," she said.
Sometimes you just need that extra bit of protein. A Texas woman called 911 Monday upset that she did not receive the $1.62 worth of extra shrimp in her fried rice that she paid for.
"He didn't even put extra shrimp in there, and I asked him can you give me extra shrimp or can you give my money back," she told the 911 dispatcher. "And he just started hollering."
The dispatcher said she'd send an officer to the A & D Buffalo's in Haltom City, northeast of Fort Worth.
"To get a police officer out here, what has to happen?" the woman said, to which the dispatcher assured her that an officer was on the way.
But when police arrived, the woman had fled with her chopsticks.
While technology has made lives easier for many, it helps sometimes to remember the days of yore, when not everything was achieved with the push of a button.
Such was the case when a Florida woman called 911 from a Walgreen's parking lot, telling the dispatcher that her car's electrical system was not working and she was trapped inside.
"I cannot open my door. I can't get the windows down. Nothing electrical works," the woman, who was not identified, told the Kissimmee dispatcher.
"And it's just getting very hot in here. And I'm not feeling well," she continued. "I need some help."
The dispatcher immediately asked if the caller has tried to pull up on the lock manually, noting that she should be able to unlock the car that way even if her car's electric system isn't working.
The woman can be heard trying to do so and, then, says, "OK, OK. I got that going. OK."
The woman then told the dispatcher she was going to try calling AAA for help with the car.
"I'm sorry," she said.
"That's OK," the dispatcher replied just before the call was disconnected.
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