My baby called 9-1-1

[VillageMama]

Yesterday I saw my 18 month old son walking around with our telephone. He was pushing various buttons so I took it from him and said, "No, no!" and hung it up.

Less than a minute later the phone rang. It was the sheriff's department. They said that someone had just called 9-1-1 from my house and hung up... did I need any assistance?

I was mortified and quickly apologized. I said no, I didn't need any assistance... it must have been my toddler who called. The dispatcher had me verify my name and address and then apologized for the intrusion. I said, "No, thank you for checking with me. I'm so sorry for the false call!".

What are the odds that the first three numbers a baby dials would be a "9" and then two "1"s? If he had pressed any other number first, it wouldn't have gone through. What are the odds?!?

 

[PrincessNancy96]

Happened here too! I apologized and explained it was my toddler. The dispatcher quickly laughed and said remind him emergencies only (she knew our family and has given him grief about it for years now).

I'm just happy they called back and verified there wasn't a real emergency.

 

[My2Cinderellas]

I used to work in a large hospital - and would make a number of outbound calls if I was working an evening shift. One evening I was sitting at a different station than I usually used, and the phone buttons were really sticky (eeuww). Pressed 9 for an outside line, 1 to start a long distance calls, and sure enough it dialled 9-9-1-1.

 

[ugadog99]

That happened to me many years ago. My then toddler daughter managed to diall 911. I took the phone from her and hung up the phone. Just a few minutes later they called right back to make sure all was well. That's one of those phone calls you don't forget.

 

[VillageMama]

That's one of those phone calls you don't forget.

I'm sure of that! When the phone rang and it was the sheriff's department, I had a momentary fear that they were calling to say that hubby had been in a car wreck on his way home from work. My heart stopped for a second.

My dad is a retired cop. He says that some departments have a policy of sending out an officer to the home if a 9-1-1 call comes through and gets hung up. After all, what if a bad guy is holding a gun to your head, making you tell the dispatcher, "No, everything's fine. It was just a mistake."?

I think my heart would have stopped for more than a second if I had seen a cruiser pull in to my driveway! When a cop comes to your door, it's usually pretty bad news.

Silly babies with their phone dialing skillz! I think my little guy just wanted to talk to Grandma!

 

[kafitty]

My dad is a retired cop. He says that some departments have a policy of sending out an officer to the home if a 9-1-1 call comes through and gets hung up. After all, what if a bad guy is holding a gun to your head, making you tell the dispatcher, "No, everything's fine. It was just a mistake."?

that's happened on more than one occasion to my aunt, who has 4 kiddos. By the last kid, the cops would pretty much just drive by and wave.

 

[torinsmom]

I used to nanny for a one year old. Her mom was 9 months preggo again, and I was 8 months along. We were talking in the kitchen before I left one day, when there was a loud knock at the door. It was the police! Evidently the little girl had punched in 9-1-1 and then dropped the phone. Since they couldn't call back, they just sent a unit out! That poor cop was trying to figure out which of these pregnant ladies needed his help!

I live in the 919 area code, so I am sure our police get a lot of accidental calls. I have been guilty of it once myself, when I was dialing in a hurry.

Marsha

 

[NC State]

At work we had to dial 9 plus 1 to call long distance. Since we are 919 area code if we dialed 911 the campus police would come by and check on us. It was so bad that the University changed it to 7 plus 1 now.

 

[whogirl'smom]

DD did that, too and was maybe even a couple months younger! I guess the odds are pretty good!

 

[LadyZolt]

Well, this thread reminds me of this kid who called 911 to get help with math:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FT4NOe4vtoM

You have to hear it and as a Mom, you will totally understand what the child was thinking.

-Dorothy (LadyZolt)

 

[Becky2005]

Add to that just a PSA -- if they DO call back-- you should answer the phone or if you accidentally dial it, just stay on the line & say "oops". Of course, I live under a rock & had no clue that we had police surrounding our neighbors house using our bushes -- until my neighbor told me about it.

Her DH accidentally hit the automatic 911 button on the phone (I think he was trying to hit redial or something - don't really know), realized his mistake hung up instantly. Called who he wanted to call, they had call waiting but he ignored the call coming in -- apparently he kept talking ignoring the call waiting for something about 10 minutes or so.

The police pretty much surrounded their house, they came to the door, her DH came out -- they asked anyone else in the house, when he said his wife & kids, they made the wife come out also to verify it wasn't HER calling etc... I don't think they made the kids come out though.

She was telling me about it the next day since she was dying of embarrassement (and I'm sure her DH got a chewing out by her!) that she came out to see several cops staking out her house since she was in her PJ's & stuff too. She had wanted to know if I spotted them in our yard, etc... -- the sad part was I was home when it was happening & had no clue, so they did a good job of being sneaky on it. They told him if he ever dials by mistake again, stay on the line & when they answer TELL them it was a mistake vs. what he did.

At least I know our police force is efficient if nothing else & they will check things out.

 

[FoundMyPrince]

Our youngest daughter did this when she was about two. We had an old phone that had belonged to my grandfather and the first speed dial number apparently was 911. The phone was sitting on the floor in our basement next to the sofa. We had the lights off and were watching a movie when the phone rang - it was the sheriff's office. Apparently our daughter knocked the receiver off, stepped on the speed dial and called 911.

We talked to the sheriff's office and told them what happened. They said they still had to send out an officer to make sure things were fine. The officer arrived a half hour later and our children were in bed (like at 10p.m.). The officer actually walked around the house, checked on the kids that were all in bed (shined his flash light on them). It was quite an event.

 

[scrump]

OUr DS has done this as well, when he was around 1.

More interestingly, now he is 2 years old, and was playing with my cell phone and somehow texted my husband this morning when DH was asleep: "Pls call me when you wake up. NMThanks."

He must've pulled up a default text option and texted to DH, but still...????

DH and I were going back and forth..."come on, YOU did it, right???"

I didn't do it, but the time stamp on the text message completely eliminates DH because he really was sleeping.

I must be going crazy.

 

[DisneyDayTripper]

In college I had a friend come to me excited he got some girls phone extension only to find out that the extension she gave him was 8911 (8 was the # to dial out)...he was very disappointed after he dialed it.

 

[Pakey]

My son did it more than once before he was 2. We finally had to keep the phone out of his reach (at the suggest of the 911 staff).

He also managed to once call my parents, across the country, from the speed dial and then set the phone down and walked off. I was walking down the hallway and could hear my father yelling "get your mommy". It took me awhile to figure out it was on the phone; my father was concerned about my phone bill.

 

[Imzadi]

What are the odds that the first three numbers a baby dials would be a "9" and then two "1"s? If he had pressed any other number first, it wouldn't have gone through. What are the odds?!?

I actually don't think they have to be the first 3 numbers. I think as long as they are contained cosecutively within a bunch of numbers, it's as long as they aren't part of a real phone number, and I don't actually think any phone numbers have them in sequence like that, the number will route to 911.

I think it's because in a real emergency, if someone has to grab the phone really quickly and start dialing, they may accidentally hit the wrong keys on the way to dialing 911. Say, a battering husband starts hitting his wife, she doesn't have time to hang up and redial 911 correctly, nor is he going to give her a chance, she just has to get those digits in there.

 

[DisneyDayTripper]

I actually don't think they have to be the first 3 numbers. I think it's as long as they aren't part of a real phone number, and I don't actually think any phone numbers have them in sequence like that, the number will route to 911.

I think it's because in a real emergency, if someone has to grab the phone really quickly and start dialing, they may accidentally hit the wrong keys on the way to dialing 911. Say, a battering husband starts hitting his wife, she doesn't have time to hang up and redial 911 correctly, nor is he going to give her a chance, she just has to get those digits in there.

I think you're right too...I once got a phone call from 911 on my cell phone and they stated that my phone dialed 911. I was like ummm no it is in my pocket and she stated that I needed to use a keyguard to make sure it didn't happen again. I looked at the # my phone dialed and it was a 3 digit #, but wasn't 911

 

[pixie921]

My son dialed 911, too, when he was about 20 months old. We had two lines in the house, and I was on the business line when he did it. I only found out because an officer showed up on my porch. I realized what happened and tried to explain and apologize. He just raised his eyebrow and said, "Ma'am, just how many children do you have in there?" Uh ... just the one.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

My son did it once, too - at our neighbor's house. The police showed up outside a few minutes later.

I also did it once when I was trying to set up a new phone.

 

[Imzadi]

I think you're right too...I once got a phone call from 911 on my cell phone and they stated that my phone dialed 911. I was like ummm no it is in my pocket and she stated that I needed to use a keyguard to make sure it didn't happen again. I looked at the # my phone dialed and it was a 3 digit #, but wasn't 911

Most cell phones nowadays have an automatic speed dial, 911 calling feature. Whenever I get a new pnoe, I usually go into my Settings to disable it, or I, too will be accidentally calling them all the time. (I'm not too careful with my cell phone. )