I'm terrified!

[Robinrs]

Yikes I lived alone in NYC for years and for almost 10 years in Atlanta and this wouldn't have never made me call 911....

Fear .... False Evidence Appearing Real.

 

[dizneydiva2005]

Someone didn't bother to leave a message on the OP's answering machine and then she thought she heard a knock at the door and freaked out and called 911. Thats hardly a situation. A situation would have been if she got a threatening message on her machine that said I'm coming to your house to get you, and then she heard a knock on her door, or someone was trying to break it down. Its not the police offcer's job to go running to someone's house because they are freaked about nothing. Could you imagine what would happen if everyone called 911 was because they were spooked about having someone call and not leaving you a message or everytime someone thought they heard a knock on their door after 5PM.

Ok, clearly you haven't spent your entire LIFE hearing cop stories, like I have. Not everyone is going to freak out and call but she did- so what?

My father just recently told me he had a call to a house- OVER the neighbors sprinker was getting his grass wet and the guy wasn't happy because he didn't want his grass wet. The sprinker was in the neighbors yard, but the run off was getting his grass wet. I could go 5 pages long of stories where the police shouldn't be called, the OP isn't one of them I would include.

 

[DSNYGRL_JKS2006]

Ok, clearly you haven't spent your entire LIFE hearing cop stories, like I have. Not everyone is going to freak out and call but she did- so what?

My father just recently told me he had a call to a house- OVER the neighbors sprinker was getting his grass wet and the guy wasn't happy because he didn't want his grass wet. The sprinker was in the neighbors yard, but the run off was getting his grass wet. I could go 5 pages long of stories where the police shouldn't be called, the OP isn't one of them I would include.

Could'nt agree with you more! I'm not trying to be rude to anyone by saying this... but its hard to understand from the outside looking in esp. if you don't know her and the situation. Its also hard to understand where I,myself come from being with my boyfriend who does 911 dispatching for a career-- i know everything there is about the police and firefighting... and I listen and hear police scanners and incidents almost 24/7. So I guess I can see not having someone in emergency services or being involved in it.. you don't take it so seriously and think what she did was kinda weird ..but I assure you.. if I was her.. I'd do almost the SAME THING--maybe go about it differently.. but still.. she didn't waste anyones TIME.. thats part of the cops duty(and I Know cops personally) they go out to calls like that.. takes a matter of 5 minutes to check the situation out.. clear it.. and move on.. and they(the officers) will give their name and # or badge # in case something serious comes up.


Like I said there has been worse things countless times over and over.. and will be for years to come.. but she doesnt' fall under that at all..

Also--look at past cold cases, or mysteries...or murders.. for ex: the trial was just on TruTV for a man who invaded a young 20's mother who was home alone with her kids in BROAD day light in Florida.. a man came and kidnapped only HER.. and her kids very young.. remained at home alone.. now this man didn't know her from anything.. and randomly selected her house etc. the neighbor saw a strange green sedan circling the block and finally pulling in her neighbors drive way.. well she never called the cops.. but for something small like that.. its not the neighbors fauly but it could have saved the woman's life who was kidnapped.. she was taken away.. and murdered.. like i said you can NEVER be to careful these days.. just do it with common sense..

 

[jmpurdy]

who are criticizing this woman who was just needing alittle reassurance and instead got all this bravado and saying that they would never call under such circumstances. Well, she was afraid. You can really feel how frightened she was. Once you cross that threshold, it is difficult to gain your composure back and the fight or flight instinct kicks in. I applaud her decision to call for help. There are countless reports that people did not listen to their instincts and the results were tragic. She wasn't a prankster. She was truly terrified. What is wrong with calling out to someone in a position to help her? I am so sorry OP that some people are chastizing you so harshly. Shame on them.

 

[DSNYGRL_JKS2006]

who are criticizing this woman who was just needing alittle reassurance and instead got all this bravado and saying that they would never call under such circumstances. Well, she was afraid. You can really feel how frightened she was. Once you cross that threshold, it is difficult to gain your composure back and the fight or flight instinct kicks in. I applaud her decision to call for help. There are countless reports that people did not listen to their instincts and the results were tragic. She wasn't a prankster. She was truly terrified. What is wrong with calling out to someone in a position to help her? I am so sorry OP that some people are chastizing you so harshly. Shame on them.

I can not agree with you more!

 

[luvmy3]

Ok, clearly you haven't spent your entire LIFE hearing cop stories, like I have. Not everyone is going to freak out and call but she did- so what?

My father just recently told me he had a call to a house- OVER the neighbors sprinker was getting his grass wet and the guy wasn't happy because he didn't want his grass wet. The sprinker was in the neighbors yard, but the run off was getting his grass wet. I could go 5 pages long of stories where the police shouldn't be called, the OP isn't one of them I would include.

Oh I see. I didn't realize hearing police stories makes you an expert. I guess since you are an expert you would know that there is an actual non-emergency police telephone number you can call when your situation isnt't an emergency. I'm not quite sure what you all think the justification for the emergency was, was it the person or automated system not leaving a message, or the (maybe) knock on the door? Her safety was not being threatened by a hang up and maybe hearing a knock on her door, she was just spooked out. She over-reacted, and all the bogus reasons other people call 911 does not make her reason justifiable. And again since you heard police stories all your life I would expect you to know that calling 911 when its not an emergency takes manpower away from REAL emergencies, thats the so what. I hope you are never in an emergency situation where you need 911, and the police officers are too busy investigating empty answering machine tapes and phantom knocks on doors.

 

[MaumeeMom]

Yikes, this thread is turning ugly. There seems to be three factions:

A) Those who agree that OP should have called 911
B) Those who think the that OP should have called a non-emergency police number
C) Those who think that OP shouldn't have contacted anyone

I'm on record with being in group B, but I wonder how much of this breakdown is a regional thing. For example, I live in a pretty small town now and I'm sure if I called the non-emergency # that someone would have come to check on me. However, I have lived in bigger cities and know that if I had called 911 that they would have told me off. In our nearest big city, the police have a reputation for not responding to big emergencies (I have no official knowledge of this but that is the word on the street). If I lived in a smaller town, I may have just called the sheriff at home.

What OP did is done, criticizing her harshly, or sarcastically, will not help.

OP I hope that this doesn't happen again and that you can feel comfortable in your new digs.

 

[dizneydiva2005]

Oh I see. I didn't realize hearing police stories makes you an expert. I guess since you are an expert you would know that there is an actual non-emergency police telephone number you can call when your situation isnt't an emergency. I'm not quite sure what you all think the justification for the emergency was, was it the person or automated system not leaving a message, or the (maybe) knock on the door? Her safety was not being threatened by a hang up and maybe hearing a knock on her door, she was just spooked out. She over-reacted, and all the bogus reasons other people call 911 does not make her reason justifiable. And again since you heard police stories all your life I would expect you to know that calling 911 when its not an emergency takes manpower away from REAL emergencies, thats the so what. I hope you are never in an emergency situation where you need 911, and the police officers are too busy investigating empty answering machine tapes and phantom knocks on doors.

OMG, sounds like someone has an attitude - I guess you decided that your opinion was the only one that matters?? So you're the expert, huh? Judge and jury? Ready to hang this woman because in YOUR opinion doesn't justify her calling the police? Seriously, maybe it's time for you to find something other than disboards on a Friday evening and your snarky comments.

I wonder how many times you can list off that YOU needed the police and they weren't there at your beckon call? Let me guess, NONE! She didn't call the police out because she had a hang nail... she was worried. Get over it already.

 

[luvmy3]

Ok, clearly you haven't spent your entire LIFE hearing cop stories, like I have. Not everyone is going to freak out and call but she did- so what?

My father just recently told me he had a call to a house- OVER the neighbors sprinker was getting his grass wet and the guy wasn't happy because he didn't want his grass wet. The sprinker was in the neighbors yard, but the run off was getting his grass wet. I could go 5 pages long of stories where the police shouldn't be called, the OP isn't one of them I would include.

OMG, sounds like someone has an attitude - I guess you decided that your opinion was the only one that matters?? So you're the expert, huh? Judge and jury? Ready to hang this woman because in YOUR opinion doesn't justify her calling the police? Seriously, maybe it's time for you to find something other than disboards on a Friday evening and your snarky comments.

I wonder how many times you can list off that YOU needed the police and they weren't there at your beckon call? Let me guess, NONE! She didn't call the police out because she had a hang nail... she was worried. Get over it already.

Excuse me for responding to your post where you insinuated that because I haven't heard police stories all my life that your opinion is the only one that matters. There is no snark in my reply, its my opinion on the situation, it differs from yours and I stated the reasons. I'm not saying you don't have the right to feel the way you do, but if you are going to claim that you are right because of stories you heard all your life, then you really should know the difference between a situation that warrants a call to 911 and one that doesn't.
BTW I'm not here to hang this woman, go back to page 1 or 2 and read my first post here. I never mentioned anything directly to her about calling 911. My comments are directed to other posters on a public forum. What I find so surprising is that people think she did the right thing by calling 911, which is supposed to be used for emergencies, not for being spooked out and scared or being worried.

I've had to call 911 only once in my life and thank goodness they were able to come when I needed them.

Here's a link to some emergency reasons to call 911 and non emergency reasons to call the non emergency police line
http://www.westcov.org/council/911.html

9-1-1 is a direct dial line into the communications center, which staffs the police and fire dispatchers for the City of West Covina. All incoming police lines for business and non-emergency calls are also answered by the same dispatchers. All dispatchers are fully trained and certified in emergency medical dispatching. We provide pre-arrival instructions for medical emergencies to the best of our ability until medical help arrives.

Emergency Calls For Service
9-1-1 should be used to report life and death emergencies, in-progress crimes, or crimes of a life and death nature that have just occurred. Some examples of these types of calls are:


Robberies in progress
Robberies just occurred (where a weapon or force is used)
Burglaries in progress or just occurred
Traffic accidents with injuries or unknown if injuries are involved
Shootings or shots fired
Fires
Domestic violence in progress
Any crime involving use of a weapon
Any and all medical aid calls
Routine Calls For Service
Routine calls for police service should be called in on the police business number, (626) 939-8500. Some examples of routine, non-emergency calls are:


Abandoned vehicles
suspicious person
noise complaints (these include music/party noise, machinery noise, etc.)
burglary reports
stolen car reports
vandalism reports
missing persons reports
annoying phone calls
non-injury traffic accidents
any other basic non-life threatening calls for police services

 

[Mysteria]

This is MY opinion and it's not to be mean.

I think the call for whatever reason (I get hang ups all the time. spam phone calls are common now!) got you freaked out and then you were hyper-sensitive to other noises. So you thought maybe you heard the door.

Would I have called in this case. No. You felt threatened so you did what you needed to do. I would suggest, as some others have, keeping the police only number handy so you don't tie up 911.

 

[locolala]

suspicious person
[/B]

So, I should have called the non emergency number for the guy I saw outside my house at 3am? He wasn't actively trying to break into my house, but yeah he scared the crud out of me. After I got off the phone with 911, I opened a 2nd floor window and yelled at him I had a loaded weapon (my pistol) and that he needed to leave. The cops came, found an 8 inch knife on him, he had a BAC well over the legal limit, and he was a registered violent sex offender. I did the right thing. Had I called the non emergency number, it might take the cops 30 mins to get to me, if they even came out.

 

[luvmy3]

So, I should have called the non emergency number for the guy I saw outside my house at 3am? He wasn't actively trying to break into my house, but yeah he scared the crud out of me. After I got off the phone with 911, I opened a 2nd floor window and yelled at him I had a loaded weapon (my pistol) and that he needed to leave. The cops came, found an 8 inch knife on him, he had a BAC well over the legal limit, and he was a registered violent sex offender. I did the right thing. Had I called the non emergency number, it might take the cops 30 mins to get to me, if they even came out.

Do you not see the difference in your situation and the OP's?

 

[locolala]

Do you not see the difference in your situation and the OP's?

I do see that there is a difference. However, if she felt uncomfortable and unsafe she was absolutely right in calling 911. I used to be a dispatcher. We had many calls where a person was home alone and was frightened by someone at the door. The cops absolutely do not mind going to these calls, in fact they'd rather respond to those calls than to ones where the person didn't call 911 until it was too late. There was one case where the person called the non emergency number to report a suspicious person on their doorstep. The dispatcher on the non emergency line got to listen to that woman die. What we were trained to tell people is that if they feel threatened or are frightened by someone on their property, they should call 911.

 

[tasha99]

Several years ago I was home alone w/ DD who was a baby.
About 1 am someone started banging on my front door. I was instantly terrriifed! We lived in a nice neighborhood and not exactly crime ridden.
I got up and and looked through the peep hole and saw 3 men banging on my door, turning the door handle trying to get in. I was just petrified but I knew DD was in her crib in another room. I ran to her room to check on her and she was sleeping through everything. I look out her window and there were another 2 men in the flower bed in front of her window TRYING TO OPEN HER WINDOW!!
I was torn between grabbing the gun or the cordless phone. I wisely chose the cordless phone and dialed 911.
Even though time seems to go slow, there were 4 police cars in front of my house immediately. I mean guns drawn etc.
I saw them talking to the men and one of the officers looked really mad and was angrily poking one of the guys chest yelling at him. I knew from that action that is could not have been that bad.
Next a female officer walked up to my house. I opened the door and she said the guys were looking for someone else's house and could not figure out why they were not answering the door. That's what they were banging so hard and trying to open the window.
One of the male officers marched the guys up to my house and made them apologize for scaring me.
In that case it was merited to call 911.
OP- Hope everything is OK now.

This reminds me so much of a night I spent in a korean style hotel. My husband (now ex) had left earlier since he was going to have to work, and I was in bed. These guys started banging on the door looking for "sooooozie." When I wouldn't answer, they tried to force the door open. This was a yogwan, with no telephones and it was 1988, so no cell phone either. Basically, I stood by the door with a wine bottle poised to crack it over the head of anyone who entered. Luckily someone who worked for the hotel heard the commotion and made them leave. Quite a memorable adrenelin rush!

 

[ICF]

So, I should have called the non emergency number for the guy I saw outside my house at 3am?

really? You can't tell the difference between seeing a really liver stranger outside your house at 3am and a likely telemarkter hang up on an answering maching and a kinda maybe I think their might have been a knock on the door?

You should have called 911....the OP, not so much.

 

[edandcolleen1995]

who are criticizing this woman who was just needing alittle reassurance and instead got all this bravado and saying that they would never call under such circumstances. Well, she was afraid. You can really feel how frightened she was. Once you cross that threshold, it is difficult to gain your composure back and the fight or flight instinct kicks in. I applaud her decision to call for help. There are countless reports that people did not listen to their instincts and the results were tragic. She wasn't a prankster. She was truly terrified. What is wrong with calling out to someone in a position to help her? I am so sorry OP that some people are chastizing you so harshly. Shame on them.

The OP did not EVEN know if she heard a knock or not.. I mean come on! Talk about overreacting.. 911 is not full all the cops/ems you want. The resources are limited. Calling over maybe or maybe not a KNOCK is abusing the system.

Sorry but god forbid a loved one waits 20 mins for a real emergency because you have a couple of the patrol cars checking out a knock on the door...

 

[OceanAnnie]

The 911 people told the OP she was right to call.

OP. I'm glad you are getting your home security revamped. Hope you are feeling better today.

 

[MaumeeMom]

I do see that there is a difference. However, if she felt uncomfortable and unsafe she was absolutely right in calling 911. I used to be a dispatcher. We had many calls where a person was home alone and was frightened by someone at the door. The cops absolutely do not mind going to these calls, in fact they'd rather respond to those calls than to ones where the person didn't call 911 until it was too late. There was one case where the person called the non emergency number to report a suspicious person on their doorstep. The dispatcher on the non emergency line got to listen to that woman die. What we were trained to tell people is that if they feel threatened or are frightened by someone on their property, they should call 911.

May I ask where you used to be a dispatcher? If you don't feel comfortable with specifics, general terms are fine - big city, small town, rural area...

I really think the disparity in this thread is related to setting.

 

[locolala]

May I ask where you used to be a dispatcher? If you don't feel comfortable with specifics, general terms are fine - big city, small town, rural area...

I really think the disparity in this thread is related to setting.

Fairfax, Virginia. Fairly large area, suburb of DC.