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.

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.