The brighter the moon, the crazier it gets.

I believe in the myth that when there is a full moon, it's crazy. Working 911 for the past few years have strengthened my beliefs. The few days before and after the full moon are usually filled with our local crazies calling and being crazy. I have had the honors of talking to many crazy people in my career, and although they think they are calling for true emergencies and we handle them with seriousness it makes for a good laugh after the fact.

My favorite 10-96 (police code for mental/crazy) calls include the older lady who called 911 saying that her neighbors were hiding raccoons under her car, and sending their cats to poop on her porch. PD gets there and there is neither of the sort going on. Or the lady who calls 911 frantic and goes on an entire story of how she was kidnapped by relatives, brought to a hotel room, and they used a Hoover Home Liposuction machine and dumped her fat in the hotel room sink. Yeah that's a bit out there.
We have a regular crazy who calls us every once in a while, he sings us songs and talks about random things that happened back during Vietnam, sometimes he gets very aggressive and he's accused me of being apart of the war crimes.
We haven't heard from one of our other 'regulars' so I assume he's moved out of town and is now blessing another 911 center with his antics. He called one night called me a Doctor, and proceeded to tell me that he doesn't need to bring his gun on the bus because he always has his harmonica.

Now, even though most of our contact with these callers is humorous they are tying up 911 lines and police resources with their crazy reports, as we send an officer to check on them each time. And I also want to know, what happens that makes you that crazy?
I sure am getting a lot of tips from these folks for when I get older and retire. I am sure to be a pain for some police department somewhere! Ha ha.

Common Sense

Working on this end of the radio I have had the opportunity to talk to a wide variety of people, albeit most in their worst moments of life, and one thing that stands out when I reflect on most of these encounters is that there is a wide range of Common Sense.

Many people I have spoken with lack Common Sense, for example I have had someone call 911 asking what someone recently arrested (within minutes) bond amount was. No ma'am this is not the jail, nor is it information, you will have to find someone with a phone book for that number.

Or the person who calls 911 (I would like to remind you 911 is for 'emergencies') because they locked themselves out of their car. I obtain their name, address, phone number, and then what color and type of car they have, next up is the question "Is your vehicle RUNNING?", some people answer straight no, some people beat around the bush and say it was running but shut itself off (yeah, okay.) well in 'big city' they are running calls after calls and their policy is only to go for running cars, or cars with a child locked inside. So, after explaining to the person the police cannot help them and pointing them towards a locksmith, we disconnect. Moments later another 911 call comes in, this time the person tells me the car is running. Now, you see I just spoke with you and you already told me all of your information, unfortunately we still can't help you out. Call 911 again and I will sign a complaint against you for misuse of the 911 system. Thanks and have a great day.

More Common Sense woes came this winter, where most of our state was hit with a blizzard. Now, I know I don't watch the news much but I do have facebook, a smartphone, computer, etc. and I know most people in this day and age have one or more. And those who don't have any nifty gadgets that us tech-savvy people do I know there is always the print newspaper. Now, the meteorologists predicted a crap-load of snow starting at a specific date and time, and warned everyone not to travel unless absolutely necessary. So when you and 75 other people start to get stuck on an impassable area of highway and call 911 to get un-stuck I am not sure what you were expecting us to send you. Our police are driving around in cars just like you, and up until you called they were nice and warm in their stations because they cant' go driving around because of the snow! I really wish they could have asked everyone what was so important that they were out driving at 10 pm at night to get themselves stuck in the blizzard.
I mean it was so bad we had officers out in snow plows still getting stuck..

Well. I am done rambling for a bit, I had neglected this blog as well as reading many blogs I follow. I promise to try and keep up with it as much as possible!

Until next time!

Global Warming!

So a few days ago in about 24 hour period we saw Ice, Snow, Rain, Storms and a Tornado!

As the days move on and it gets colder everyone needs to remember to drive smart! We handled a couple bad accidents during that 24 hours and it was during the ice and snow part. And it really wasn't "that bad" to be considered any accumulation. Be aware of the conditions, drive safe. Too many people loose lives during bad weather when they could have stayed at home and waited it out until road crews could salt and scrape!

Hopefully this year there are less bad accidents, but comparing year to date statistics from last year it's not looking too good for our area.

Drive Smart, Drive Safe.

Oh yeah, Happy Thanksgiving!

In Case Of Emergency, Break Glass.

Okay, fellow dispatchers, I need you to chime in here.

Let's say there was a catastrophic emergency in the area that would increase call volume, radio traffic, and mayhem in a center. Most facilities are staffed at minimum but have room for extra people (more consoles). Does anyone have a procedure sent in place that would call out to the off-duty dispatchers for an 'emergency hire' to get the center staffed to max. Since no one would be able to call through a long list of employees to hire in what would you do?

Well, during such unforeseen event I happened to go into work to assist during time of emergency, and boy we needed it. But Monday Morning quarterbacking has kicked in and people are complaining that "why did he get paid to go in on OT no one else got calls" yadda yadda. Frankly I didn't see anyone else show up, a few stayed over but not everyone. We kicked ass for 6 hours until problems were resolved and radios got quiet.

But, is that bad that I went into 'work' on my day off? Apparently I am the only one that enjoys what I do and 'wishes' that I was in on the big emergency calls. They will regret the day I am gone and working the streets and no longer working the radio because it seems that I am the only one here willing to go that extra mile!

Anyhow, I'm done rambling, I am tired for I have clocked 36 hours of OT in the last 3 days, see what I mean?

Spellcheck

When you're in the midst of typing information into a hot call sometimes your fingers are working too fast and, every once in a while, you will make a typo. Too bad you can't go back and change misspellings!

Typos are great, sometimes completely innocent misspellings and then there are the 'what the hell is that supposed to mean'. In the end they make for a good laugh.

For example, A warrant add-on I placed into LEADS (What we use in the state of IL to run for wants/warrants, drivers license and vehicle information) the address I typed was supposed to be 'washington' street, instead I typed 'wsdjomhypm' and didn't notice it for about 15 minutes until I pulled the paper off the printer. Whoops!

Most recently I type 'offender is on herion and alcolhol' into a mental transport call. Sound it out, for the rest of the night we were talking crazy!

Or you just type too damn fast and instead of typing a full sentence you just leave out half the conversation.

For an EMS run I typed "Pain in the lower apartment".. What I really meant was "Pain in the lower abdomen, caller in lower apartment".
Hey, I was close!

Summer Heat

They say with heat comes more violence.
So far we haven't seen that much more calls for service going on, which is very good for the community, not so good for keeping occupied at work.

I haven't really had anything 'out of the ordinary' to post here, as much of it has been the same mundane calls. But, one call sits on the top of my mind still..

It was about 11 PM and I took a 911 call from a residence on the far west side of the county, on the other line was a panicked 5 year old boy. "I just woke up and I can't find my mommy" he says. I ask him his address and he knows the numbers and that matches up on my ALI screen, I ask him if he knows where his mom is and he has no idea. "Just me and mommy live here" he says.
I ask if he knows what his mom's name is, he gives it and says something that caught me off guard "Can you look her up" and for a moment, and with the panic in his voice it sounded like he asked "Can you wake her up". My heart sank "What was that" I asked, and got the clarification I had hoped for. I stayed on the line for a few minutes until the Deputy arrived. The front door was locked and the little guy couldn't figure out how to get it unlocked, so the Deputy tried the back door, and was able to make entry.
Moments later the Deputy clears the call, "10-8 found mom, she was asleep in her room on her bed."

Now, albeit a strange call, I was glad it was a good ending and Mom wasn't off partying or whatever else could have been going on. But man that would have been a hell of a wake up call for the police to show up in your bedroom!

Mmm, Donuts!

This was some time ago when I first started. I get a call from an elderly female and this is how it went:

Me: 911 Where is the emergency!
Caller: Yes yes I woke up and came in the living room and there is a squirrel on my table eating my donut! I don't know how it could have got in here!

Really?! What the hell.

Of course, it's the departments policy to send an officer to all 911 calls as weird or stupid as they could be, so patrol went on over to investigate the donut bandit and sure enough there was a half eaten donut sitting on her coffee table. Unfortunately the bandit got away and hid elsewhere in her house.

The officer called in and let us know that the doors and windows were all shut but there were many holes in the walls and the donut loving squirrel snuck in that way.

Gotta love this job!

Sir, what really does an emergency mean to you?

The night was fairly steady, calls from across the county and city were coming in. And then this guy calls in. Mind you he's probably in late 20's or early 30's, not an elderly caller that would think they are bothering us.

Me: 911 where is the emergency?
Caller: Well this probably isn't really an emergency.. but I just saw these three males break into a window of my neighbors house and climb inside.

Really, sir. Really?

What WOULD an emergency be for you, sir? Are you related to the person that called me a few months ago because your puppy was choking on a bone that YOU gave it and YOU yelled at me "Oh, I guess my kids will just have to watch their dog choke to death" because I wouldn't send and ambulance and instead gave you two locations of emergency vets in the area? You're lucky I gave you the vets locations, I could have just disconnected, you are a waste of the emergency response system!

You can't fix stupid.

Blood

"OH MY GOD!" Screams the hysterical caller as she comes upon the heap of twisted metal that was two cars just moments before.
"There, theres blood everywhere in the car and and oh my God and I think it's his brains!"


Everyone in the car that was hit survived with non-life threatening injuries. As for the driver of the offending vehicle, the 'brains and blood' that the caller actually saw was the spray paint the driver was huffing before he slammed into the innocent driver going the other direction.

Sleeping.

Me: 911 where is the emergency?
Caller: Oh nevermind. It's okay now.
Me: Ma'am what is it that you needed?
Caller: Well I was going to need an ambulance, I thought grandma was dead... but she woke up! It's okay everything is fine!...


Well then.

Just one of those days

So, For some odd reason today has been a 'stupid people' day.

The highlight had to have been my 911 call I took from a juvenile with a bit of an accent, sounded about 13 or so.
Went something like this:

Me: 911 where is the emergency?
Caller: Yes, Send me a vegetarian.
Me: I'm sorry a what?
Caller: A vegetarian.
Me: I'm sorry I can't understand you, what is it you need?
Caller: For my dog, I need a vegenarian its sick.
Me: HUH? For your dog? [pause] Ooooh you need a veterinarian! Sorry but 911 is for human emergencies, try calling 411 or check the phonebook for an emergency animal hospital!

Yeah, The vegetarian. Totally caught me off guard!

Doing The Impossible.

So, How many people thought that a dispatcher could NEVER get hurt 'in the line of duty'?

Well.. I was one of those people.. Until the other night.

I successfully flipped out of my chair.

We have nice 24 hour task chairs that are really good, they come in two sized, small seat and large seat. I was in a small one, and it was really high up, and I went to recline back. The wheels must have been in perfect alignment as I started to feel the wheels rolling out from under me. As the chair started to rotate I grabbed onto the corner of my desk throwing my weight onto that had, which ultimately pulled something in my shoulder (no biggie, I've been hurt worse!) which ached for the rest of the night.

I startled everyone in the room though, those things are loud when the slam onto the floor! haha. It made for a good laugh and that will probably stick with me for a while.

Touch of Death

I seem to be the scapegoat now when something goes wrong in the communications center, or even out on the streets..

I seem to have been able to break a few things no one else could manage to break before. So every time something goes wrong with a piece of equipment it's "I bet Ramblings touched it last". But it is only because I have managed to snap in half one of our desk lights (Which are made to twist, turn, flip, swivel and do everything) just by pushing it back out of the way of the monitors..! I have managed to break the computer system for our center and our backup center by trying to type in an address, which caused a 2 day outage until they could fix it (yay for pen/paper, old school).. And most recently I have started a fire.
Yep. A fire. Apparently I must answer the phone too much, because all of a sudden I get this big whiff of burning dead fish (yea best I can describe it) and I ask my partner if she smells it, which brings her around to my console which immediately she gags uncontrollably, uh oh.
I notice that my ALI (Automatic Location Identifier) screen is gone, and I go to the back and sniff around and find that the source of the smell must be the ALI screen burning out.
For good safety measures we call our nearest fire company over to check it out and make sure the thing wasn't still burning.
But the worse part of the whole thing is that smell, and it stayed in that room for ever, and it's not like we could prop the back door open because some crazy repo guy would probably wander his way through it or we would get a dog or cat to venture in to get that dead fish! ha.

I also happen to answer the phone whenever something big, or crazy happens. Whenever we have something crazy I probably am stamped as the call taker on my shift, Every time I had answered the phone during one afternoon it would be a fire or ambulance call for my county fire partner which was sicker than could be and picked that because usually it was the slowest (ha) but I have had some crazy stuff happen where people have come up 10-7 (dead) such as the trucker who decided it would be a good idea to chase his moving truck that rolled off as he was hitching a trailer, jump into the window only to wedge his cab in between two parked trailers at the end of the lot, ultimately crushing him. And I took the caller who believed he was still breathing and we sent the local pd and fd hoping we would have a rescue and not a fatal, The first officer gets on scene and advises us it's a 10-7 that the victim was very purple.
Wow, Maybe in the shock of finding the crash my caller didn't notice the guys color, but maybe it was his human instinct to believe he was still alive and have a hope that he could be saved. Who knows. But, it was one of those crazy calls that I happened to take.

I guess when I got work I shouldn't touch anything or answer anything. At least that's what my co workers think!

The Downpour

Recently we had our first big rains here since the winter. Which means for the storm sewer system it's a big flush to get all the junk sitting in there out.
Bad news, when it pours a couple inches in a few hours the storm drains are going to back up, flood every freakin street in the city and cause havoc for traffic, and there are a few knuckleheads who try to drive through said flooded streets and eventually get stuck.

But, after dealing with the numerous calls from people getting stuck in water/traffic this takes the cake.

I hear my partner across the room, on a 911 cellular line, state "No, ma'am there isn't a water main break anywhere.... it's raining... No, no there is no boil order...."

Some nincompoop was stupid enough to think that there had been a water main break and that was the cause for the multiple flooded streets throughout the city. Yes, yes ma'am there was a water main break, we have them on their way out right this second to go and fix it but in the mean time can you do us a huge favor and go stand outside and make sure no one drives through the street, we would hate for them to get stuck in the hole!

How to tell if someone is crazy.

It's a cold night, about 3 am, not much activity going on anywhere in the county. It's recently snowed and that is keeping everyone inside.

A 911 line rings, I pick it up
Me: 911 where is your emergency?
Caller: xxxx yyyy out by the river (this is a rural county address)
Me: And what is going on out there sir?
Caller: Well there are two guys walking around my house with a gun!
Me: Okay, can you tell me where they are right now and can you give me a description of these guys?
Caller: They are behind my house, and they are both male Hispanics and its a nickle plated pistol they have.
Me: (Note, PD is already enroute, the county officers and also a closer village is sending units) Sir, can you tell me what kind of clothes they are wearing, you know what color shirt the guy with the gun has?
Caller: No, I couldn't tell. But he is wearing a sombrero.
Me: (Thinking, what the hell!) Okay... Well what about the other guy?
Caller: Oh, he just has a hat on.
Me: Oh... Well I have an officer pulling up where are these guys at now?
Caller: Over in the abandoned house next door, they were inside but are out on the porch now.
Me: Okay, Well I have an officer here he is having trouble finding the house you're in, do you see the officer out side?
Caller: No officers live out here that I know of.
Me: What?.. No do you see the officer outside!
Caller: Yeah there he is! (Disconnected)

I am thinking to my self, what the hell, how can you tell they are Hispanics, and the finish of the gun, but cannot see what color clothes they have on, yet you know the guy has a sombrero.

The officers clear it, they checked didn't find any foot prints in the snow and talk to the guy and find nothing.

The next night they are back out there, he called nicor out and nicor called us, the guy was freaking out to the nicor people saying that there are spirits in his window, that he saw an angel with a halo in the window. Officers get out there and search around the house to make sure it's secure while talking to the guy. One officer finds a loaded shotgun in the back bedroom laying on the bed and diabetic perscriptions that have not been filled in over a year.
There's your problem right there. Mr Crazy is got some issues. He got a trip to the hospital.

Hopefully we don't hear from him any time soon. Althought it gave us all a chuckle in the communications center!

I Hate Needles.

So. I regularly give blood, I feel that I can help by doing so, I am O+ and that type is the universal so I know it will help someone who needs it.

But, I hate needles. I donated blood recently, and the lady 'found' my vein before she stuck me.. Well it 'disappeared' and that made her have to wiggle around, she couldn't get it so another nurse came over and tried and was able to get it. OUCH.

Not too good, but I think it's not that bad it could be a lot worse.. and it got a little worse.. You know how you have to 'squeeze', well I was and the needle was twisting something in there because oh man it was hurting..

So I donate in about 6 minutes the bag is filled, I get up and take about 15 steps and sit down at the snack table and start to feel like I am going to pass out, man was that crazy, I got all cold pale and sweaty, so off I went to a table to lay with my feet up and an ice pack for 10 minutes.

I never had that many complications, or any of them at that, when I have donated and I have been doing it regularly (every eligible donation period!)

But I still hate needles.. Ah!

Shift Change

Our rotations are up and I am now working the night shift. This is bad for me, for I LOVE to be doing stuff, and working this shift has been quite slow for the last few shifts. I do imagine as soon as it gets warmer and as soon as the schools let out this summer it will be busy, but right now I am going crazy! So I have accomplished setting a new poker high score on the computers, bwahaha! 8 hours of playing poker and I got paid.

Although, we have had a blast listening to old calls saved on the consoles, those have been interesting needless to say. So far nothing major has happened on our shift this year, just a few drunks that are being stupid calling us up because they were kicked out of a bar and their coat was still inside.

So, I bought myself a Nikon D40 a few months ago. I haven't gone out and wandered around taking pictures of things though. Although I did go to Chicago to see the Chicago Marathon.. I do need to go out and take some pictures of things though, I got a neat little flash for it too.


Back to work, my biggest complaint with the midnight shift is the food.. We have NO WHERE to eat that is close but Wendys.. Dang!



So, I am debating on what I should do. I am wanting to get into a police department, and I really don't mind if it is with a City or County as I find both interesting but see the County with more 'to do' outside of patrol. Now, Thing is I believe our County still has an axillary program which I would love to get into, and do while I am still working dispatch and applying for agencies (or even use that to get into the department). Or I can wait and throw out applications as they start hiring. I still have a few more classes I need to take to get my associates in Law Enforcement that I have been putting off for a year now, and they are the basic general-education classes (maths and sciences) which I find so easy but boring, I hate school! I need to get those out of the way though and at least have an associates degree in something, especially since many departments are requiring education and a certain amount of college credits now-a-days.

Ahh I don't know! Anyone with any suggestions feel free to throw them my way.

Morons.

Life is full of them, right?

With my new job I seem to hear a lot of stupid things.. Things that would make you want to reach across the phone lines and smack the other person up-side their head.

Take, for example, the moron who called 911 a few nights ago and I happened to answer his plea for help.

It went something like this:
Me: 911 where is your emergency?
Moron: Ya down here a' XX n' YY ther' is some mob actin' goin' on
Me: What do you mean by 'Mob Action'
Moron: Uh well der' is abunch of people gangin' up ova' here
Me: How many is a bunch and what are they doing? [I can now hear my partner taking a large fight call next to me near the intersection Moron gave me]
Moron: Well a bunch and they fighting
Me: Sir my officers are en route, but I need to let my officers know how many, can you give me a number?
Moron: Uh like 20
Me: Now are any of them armed and who are they fighting?
Moron: I already told ya naw' get tha po-lice here quick!
[click]
Me: heeellloooo?

A little while later after the police got on scene and cleared it as 10-8 (available) just a group of juveniles walking down the street.. no problem.. the moron calls 911 to complain that he was asked too many questions.
After speaking with my partner and her having telling him twice that it's not an emergency to complain he will have to call 123-1234 to complain he was given to my supervisor who basically told him that he was going to be arrested for misuse of 911 (hoorah) if he doesn't hang up and call back in the morning.

I never did get pulled into the office, I guess I didn't ask enough questions..



Just to throw out there to anyone else looking into 911 dispatch as a job the training will probably vary from center to center.. We got a few weeks of in class training than was sent out with another dispatcher for a few weeks.. I do have to say that you will need to know how to use computers and not be nervous over the phones, that was a big downfall for some of the new people that started with and after me is they weren't familiar with computers and weren't comfortable with them. That and I have heard stories of some past dispatchers that would refuse to answer 911 lines (who were than let get due to that fact). But it's been great, I knew a lot about the police side of things due to my classes I was taking and the fact that I was able to do a couple of ride-alongs with my city and county police so I became more familiar with their basics (beats, 10 codes, call signs, etc)

Monster

Anyone try Monster.. No, I'm not talking about the thing that lives under your bed.. The I'm talking about the 'energy' drink Monster (I guess there are multiple flavors and whatnot..)

Last night I worked for almost 24 hours straight.. woohoo.. It started Saturday morning getting up at 6 for my other job to be there at 7.. I got off that at 1 pm and I saw I had a message to come in for a few hours (only 4) so I took it.. While I was there there was a call off for the midnight shift, and at the time I passed on it..

I went home, 'chilled' for a bit and than ran out to grab some oh so delicious Chicken Ring Sandwiches from White Castle (It's going to be the death of me.. I make food runs almost nightly there now, gosh) and decide what the heck, I will take the midnight shift I am feeling up to it..

So I get there for my shift and we start the night off with what came in as a pursuit..
Woohoo indeed..
So what we thought was really a pursuit that State had on the highway turned out to be a caller on the phone following some dude that stole some stuff and NO police had got to the vehicle to pull it over.. Whoops that's not what I was told! I put out the 10-80 (code for pursuit) and had 4 Tac units and a couple County guys going up to help.. The catch up to the guy and wait for State to pull the guy over since we were now traveling in another county and didn't want to be the ones who started something..
They arrested the bad guy..

After that my channel was pretty quiet for the most part for a Saturday night..
So, lets get to my Monster story..

One of the other dispatchers ran out for a bit for a break out back, one of her friends stopped by that works for the County, and also for the same company that distributes Monster.. She came back in with two BIG cans (like two and a half pop cans, ha) of Monster, one for me and one for another guy in there but he didn't want it..
So I got both.. Lemme tell you they taste pretty good but have a strange after taste.. but I don't think that they work.. I was really tired (we all were) and I didn't feel it make me untired, I felt hyper but tired.. make sense?

Anyhow, they are pretty good but I should try them next time before my body starts to shut down and fall alseep.. By the time I got home I was running on hour 24 of up and running.. and I was half tempted to turn around and take another shift in the afternoon, but I decided I was too crazy.

I love the money though..

Now what should I spend it on.. :) I am looking at buying a Nikon D40 .. I've spotted a couple of good buyers on eBay that have them with a few lenses and a few other items for a decent price.. I've always had a likeing in photography, just never had a decent camera to do anything with.. now that I have this monster of a PC that is capable of doing some really cool after effects with Photoshop I am having fun with what my camera that I have can do..


Hmm .. I guess I picked a good blog title because I just realized I truley am rambling! Sorry!

Work...

Haven't been around for a while.. I've been working, working, sleeping, working.. That's about it!

It's been pretty crazy.. Talk to my first suicidal (well.. eh, he wasn't that extreme since the police didn't send him to the loony bin) on the phone.. I could-a done better and the rest of the room let me know what I did wrong and what to do next time..

You would figure since Summer has come and is gone and since kids are now in school that they would be less prevalent to getting hit by cars.. Well for some odd reason the last few nights have had a handful of kids on bikes getting hit by cars. And kids running into the side of a car at that..

The remnants of Ike dumped on us and flooded a good part of the county, but didn't do any really sever damage.. but, moron after moron decided it would be a good idea to disobey the sign that says "water on pavement road closed" and try and get through. Not a good idea.
And on top of it, the officers that are now having to break away to deal with your stupid 'I was running late' excuse will now spend time writing you citations and inform you that you will have to get your own tow truck and get yourself out of the water.
And to all of the lucky people that got the many citations dished out by a few officers sitting on the other side of those really nifty big orange signs I have no sympathy. You see the signs, then the police cars, and maybe even another moron that has already been pulled over, yet you still try and go through the barricades to try and go through the 3 feet of water..
God help us all.