18.
Kind of relevant, worked in the Coast Guard where one of my jobs was the same thing as a dispatcher with radios and phones and boats instead of cars to respond. One day some one called me to tell me their young daughter was just kidnapped. I asked them if the kidnapper was on a boat or near the water, they said no. The caller just didn’t think it was a big enough issue to call 911 so they called the Coast Guard instead.
17.
My husband used to dispatch before he was old enough to go to the police academy. We lived in a small town, ranked 3rd most dangerous in our state. Lots and lots of drug use. There was a woman who was honestly crazy. I don’t know if she had mental problems before the drugs or if the drugs fried her brain but she was a regular caller. Some of her calls- she called and said that she was raped. After coaxing some info out of her she said she knew who did it. It was her stuffed bear . Another time she called to report a break in because she fell asleep with her blanket wrapped around her but when she woke up it was bundled at her feet. She called one summer night (routinely got over 115 degrees in the summer) and said that she had walked 3 Miles from her apartment and needed a ride back because she was barefoot and her feet hurt. He asked her where her shoes were and she said she was carrying them. She walked 3 miles and didn’t think to put them on.
Another call wasn’t stupid but still stuck with me. It was a domestic violence call and when he asked what was going on the woman yelled “he threw a piping hot chicken pot pie at me!” Something about her attention to detail I just thought was funny in an unfunny situation.
16.
My favorite was one taken by a co-worker. She had a guy who called to report hearing gunshots. He was the kind of pompous ass who insisted he could tell her the caliber of the gun from the sound of the shots. The officers were checking the area. And he called back. What he insisted was a certain caliber gunshot was actually a can of Coke exploding in his freezer.
15.
Guy gets his truck stuck in the mud while out doing donuts at 3 AM and calls for help. Tell him he needs to pay a tow truck to winch him out. Guy gets angry and claims we are leaving him stranded in the dark (spooooky), tell him we can send an officer out to check on him if the area is unsafe. “Y’all got me fucked up, I’m on probation and you tryin to send me back to jail!”
Tow truck arrives and while trying to winch him out, guy keeps taking off his clothes and trying to have sex with his girlfriend in the back seat…of the truck the driver is working on. Tow driver leaves. Guy calls back and is now VERY angry that tow driver didn’t give his girlfriend a ride home, since he’s gonna fight the cops when they show up. Additional officers were sent.
14.
3 am. Got a call about a suspicious vehicle outside of her house. I start getting the description and get my officers en route when she says “They’re leaving!” I get the direction they are headed and relay it; I’ve got 4 officers converging like a net on this guy.
Now that I’ve got a moment I ask the woman: “What exactly did they do?”
She replies: “They just stopped at the stop sign for a moment and then they moved on….”
13.
Caller calls for an ambulance, female patient, difficulty breathing. Ambulance arrives on scene and starts screaming for the fire department. Turns out the lady was having difficulty breathing from all the smoke in the burning house. Caller never thought to mention it.
12.
I had a woman call 911 to ask if it was legal to sell a baby.
11.
My ex’s mom wouldn’t buy him mcdonalds. The guy is 15. His mom said “no there’s food at home,” so being an adult he calls 911. Then he’s ashamed of calling 911 so doesn’t say anything. One of his sisters is screaming at him for being an idiot and the other is laughing hysterically.
His mom had to get on the phone and explain she raised a bratty kid who throws tantrums when he’s told no.
10.
I’ve had a number of very similar calls. Dispatching for a small city in Canada. A guy called in to report himself being kidnapped and held against his will in the back of a car. Got his location and saw officers already on scene. We’d just arrested him, he was very high.
9.
My sister once called 911 because someone TP’d one of our trees on Halloween Eve.
20 years later, I STILL give her shit for that.