911 dispatchers rarely have a reason to laugh on the job. 90 percent of the time, they’re a lifeline for the person on the other end of the line. That’s why 911 dispatchers are often referred to as “invisible first responders.”
But every now and then, someone calls with an issue that has nothing to do with life or death. Instead, it’s something a lot more - well, comical. Take a read through our list of the 6 funniest 911 calls in recent memory.
In Greenville, S.C. a 911 dispatcher received a phone call from someone who sounded like a baby, according to a local news channel. Police responded to the call to make sure everything was ok, ending up at a house where an elderly man answered the door - followed by his two-year-old granddaughter, Aliyah, who had just one pant leg on. It turned out she’d called 911 to get help putting on the rest of her pants.
The grandfather had no idea that Aliyah had called 911 and apologized, but the officer who responded was happy to sit down with Aliyah and help her get dressed.
One Oklahoma dispatcher got a very strange call one day: a woman had opened her toilet seat and discovered a squirrel swimming around in it. Instead of calling a wildlife rehabilitator, which might have made more sense, the woman called 911.
Shortly afterward, police arrived on scene to apprehend the soggy animal and get him safely out of the toilet and into the hands of wildlife experts.
What do you do if you hear strange noises in the house you happen to be robbing? Call 911, of course (or the Romanian version of 911, as that’s where this occurred).
A thief got spooked by strange sounds while robbing a house, and called to report the sounds to the police. The police arrived, but they weren’t too concerned about the sounds when they saw what the man was doing. They arrested him and the man went to prison. And the sounds? They were being made by the homeowner’s pet cat.
In Portland, Ore. a man broke into someone’s house to take a shower - or at least, that’s what he was doing when the homeowner came home and found him in the bathroom. Not only did the homeowner call 911, but the intruder did too. He was scared, he said, that the homeowner might have a gun.
There’s no report on whether the homeowner did, in fact, have a gun, but the police officers who arrested the intruder certainly did.
One woman called 911 over a fast food emergency: Burger King had messed up her order of a Western BBQ Burger, and she just had to get it fixed even if it meant calling the police.
The dispatcher displayed quite a bit of patience as the woman listed all her complaints about the Burger King employees and the manager. Finally, the dispatcher told her that police would not be responding and advised her to speak to the manager herself.
This good advice wasn’t much appreciated by the caller, who said that the police were supposed to be there to protect her. Even, it appears, from mistaken fast food orders.
In Greenfield, Wis. a distraught woman called to say she and her husband were basically being held hostage … by their cat.
By the time the woman called, the cat had attacked her husband and they’d retreated to the bedroom where they locked themselves in, safely protected from the crazy feline. Officers responded and the cat was taken by Animal Control.
Oddly enough, this isn’t the only cat-related 911 call on record. A woman in Florida also called 911 to report being held hostage by her Russian Blue cat.
Want to read more of our blog posts for 911 and PSAP workers? Check out “Hiring Tips for PSAP Managers,” “Preparing Your PSAP for NG911 Compliance,” and “Why PSAPs Should Be Using the U.S. National Grid to Find 911 Callers.”
