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!

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)