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!