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I've been a scanner listener for decades and I've noticed a disturbing trend: The type of calls I hear seem to be getting more and more on the order of personal service. I've recently heard calls for assistance getting kids off to school, toilets overflowing, basic nursing services like replacing a catheter and last week a lady "didn't feel well and wanted her BP checked." Only rarely are these calls dismissed, most of the time some agency rolls. I know I'm probably preaching to the choir, but next time a lid lift or fire levy comes on the ballot, I will be thinking of these calls. I spoke to one of our local fire chiefs about it and he just rolled his eyes and nodded his head in frustration. But he's got a conflict: the more "activity" he can show, the more personnel and equipment he can beg for.

My question for the group: What's the most lame 911 call you've ever heard?

Someone called 911 on Thanksgiving to see what temperature a turkey should be cooked to when done. :bowrofl:

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" SILENCE IS CONSENT "

Made to Government Specs:
1) Measured with a micrometer.
2) Marked with a chalk.
3) Cut with an axe.

Jim N7UAP - Bellingham, WA / InterceptRadio.com

I was once (I think I've bitched about it here before) dispatched to a "4-year-old female who was refusing to listen to her mother and help with the kitchen work". Enroute, the dispatcher informed me it was upgraded to an DV assault call since the girl had screamed at her mother and thrown a plate across the kitchen.

I once (in CA) had a woman tourist who had hit a bear on the highway. FTO went to shoot it (it had a broken back) and the women began shrieking and cursing at us not to do that, to take it to a vet instead.

Lastly, I remember YEARS ago (ca. 1995 or so) Kent Fire went on a call for a "very aggressive 2 year old male feline unable to descend from a tree". I guess they thought if they worded it that way, no one would know it was a CIT call.

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President-in-Exile, Seattle Area Radio Communications And Scanner Traffic Intercept Crew (SARCASTIC)
Don't feel bad if you can't use your STD100/200; there are still people using Digital Frequency Search!
Bunnery definition for the under-fives

I went on a call one time where a guy who was house sitting somehow fried the home stereo. It was a small box size stack-able stereo with a couple of speakers. He called 911 because of the smell of electrical from it, which of course is completely valid call. But when we got there it was a different story.

He had the stereo outside when we got there. And he wanted us to either write or sign a note that stated he was not responsible for the stereo mishap. We of course told him no, filled out our report and went back in service. After we got back to the station we got a call from dispatch. He had called 911 again and wanted my partner and I to call him via land line. So my partner called and this time the guy wanted us to call the home owner, explain the stereo issue and state we did not believe the guy was at fault for the stereo dieing.

Other FF's on the board will have stories along the same line.

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I still like the one when a woman called 911 to report a domestic dispute with her husband.

On the way to the call the officers heard the husband get on their frequency with his modified ham radio and give his side of the dispute :bowrofl:

It did not go over well with the police department. :roll:

Some of you old timers on here will probably remember this happening in the greater Seattle area some time ago.

_________________
" SILENCE IS CONSENT "

Made to Government Specs:
1) Measured with a micrometer.
2) Marked with a chalk.
3) Cut with an axe.

Jim N7UAP - Bellingham, WA / InterceptRadio.com

Not only that, some of us remember who it was. If memory serves it involved KCSO in the Federal Way area.

I'm a decades long listener too, but took a 10 year hiatus where I didn't listen much. I picked up a couple of new scanners 3-4 months a go and have noticed the same type of calls. Everyone has a cell phone, so it doesn't seem to bother people to make silly calls.

What I find disturbing are the 100's of butt dialed, misdialed 911 calls. Most often the dispatcher will call back and get voice mail, so an officer is dispatched. What a huge waste of time and resources.

Another one that I heard quite a bit during hunting season were guys walking back to their vehicles carrying their guns. One officer said "don't people know it's hunting season!" Seems like any gun at all is 911 even a rifle in a gun rack. I've heard 3-4 of those calls lately.

Having listened to calls in the Puget Sound, I'm wondering where you are hearing this stuff as all I heard was your usual run of city issues.

Down here in Portland we don't get many stupid calls over the air. I have heard some good ones though when they have the man power and just need a Officier to set the caller straight.

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Mt Wave SAR member
Support Search & Rescue: Get Lost!
http://www.mwave.org

Heard an "out of control" kid call earlier today :roll:

Methinks parents are afraid of the CPS so call the cops when the kids won't listen to them, to avoid any hint of "child abuse" or the like if they took matters into their own hands. :puke:

Along these lines "urinating in public" has been upgraded to a "sex offense" in some people's minds... :oops:


WSP gets buried in calls about "erratic driving"... :beer: Wonder if the new cellphone use laws will slow this down, but I doubt it... :beer:

Don't need to watch soap operas... Seems enough of that in real life...

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That is how the people at DARPA think. they take things and use them in unconventional ways, to see what happens.

IN Seattle many years ago they had a call of some-7-8 year old kids trying to swipe gold fish out of some pond. SPD dubbed it the great fish robbery.

they also had a call about some guy walikng around acting strange wearing womens clothes, but the officer told dispatcher there was nothing he could do it was not against the law

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born to be wild

I heard an officer that was dispatched to a noise complaint. The text of the call stated that there were people above her that were “working out loudly” and it was happening almost everyday about the same time in the evening.

Along those lines, I arrived in Seaside very late one night (actually early in the am) for SeaPac.
All I wanted was some sleep.

Then a good and loud: "squeeka squeeka squeeka..."

I took a chair and banged the hell out of the ceiling
Upstairs (male) neighbor yelled a stream of obscenities, BUT THE NOISE STOPPED!!!!!

No need to call the cops! :twisted:

One of the dumbest calls I had when I worked on an ambulance was a mother calling because her teenage kid had a pimple. A plain, ordinary, everyday pimple. She followed the ambulance to the hospital, and was in the waiting room of the ER when the triage nurse sent the kid out to wait what was probably a very long time to be seen. The expression on her face when that happened still warms my heart. :lol:

How true! You mean I can't pee outdoors anymore. What's this world coming too!.....:)

Did the cell phone bill pass? If anything it will make it 10 times worse for WSP. All the do gooders will be calling in the people that are talking on their cell phone. :(

Irony.....

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