911 and cell phones.
I’ve occasionally wondered if dialing 911 on a cell phone would ensure a quick and proper connection to the authorities in the case of an emergency.
Well, around 4am this morning, I was able to actually find out.
I was awakened by some screaming outside. At first it was short and intermittent, and it took probably two or three screams to pull me from the depths of sleep. Once the sound fully roused me, I realized the screams seemed to be coming from right outside the house. I jumped up and looked outside and sure enough, there was a guy punching on a girl lying in the street and dragging her around by a backpack she was wearing. I immediately reached for my cell and dialed 911, but instantly worried the call wouldn’t be routed quickly enough. Thankfully that wasn’t the case. A dispatcher picked up in a few seconds and I immediately rambled off my address and let them know what I was witnessing. The dispatcher asked me if I could describe the guy, but all I could see was that he had short dark hair and that he was possibly Hispanic. Then, all of a sudden, the girl was pounding on our front door, continuing to scream for help. I relayed this to the dispatcher, and she replied that someone was already on the way. Obviously, the pounding on the door woke Vedder, who started barking insanely. We all came out of our respective bedrooms, and I noticed Sarah was on her cell phone, too, also calling the police. Dawn opened the door a bit, trying to push Vedder from lunging outside and getting the girl to come inside…but, I think Vedder’s crazy barking scared her, because she wouldn’t come in.
Then, the police were there… all in the matter of a minute, it seemed, which was good. But the guy beating on the girl was long gone, quite possibly because the girl’s banging on the door got Vedder ready to attack. He’s a sweet dog, but he goes into protection mode very quickly.
Needless to say, we all stayed up and peeked through the windows to watch the police take the girl’s statement. I say ‘girl’ because she really didn’t look any older than her mid-twenties. Not to be insensitive, but my speculation is the girl was either tripped out on some drugs or really very drunk, because she kept standing up and then a minute or two later she’d be sitting in the street as the cops talked to her. Dawn and I also noticed the cops looked slightly annoyed while talking to her…but maybe those are their permanent expressions in this neighborhood. :confused:
I know no area is completely removed from occurrences such as these, but it’s stuff like this that makes me want to move.
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By Cheryl, April 21, 2007 @ 11:46 am
Wow! :shocked: I would have been freaking out, seriously.
I’m glad you didn’t have to go through any bs while calling the police. I had to one time. I was on the interstate during a bad thunderstorm and saw a van of people run off the road and hit a tree. I was so scared for them. I was way south of Memphis, but got Memphis police when I called…and I live in Mississippi. How weird is that? Anyway, I ended up hanging up on them and calling Kristin to call the police for me.
I love cell phones.
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