Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Love Emergency




Before we take a look at this story, can anyone tell me why the emergency telephone number is 9-1-1 in Canada and the United States but it's 9-9-9 in the UK? I'd like to know.

And now to the news…

Police throughout Canada and the USA have begged the public to stop calling 9-1-1 unless they face a true emergency. Police are overwhelmed by requests for directions, weather conditions, and other trivial matters. Trivial calls jeopardize the lives of people who are trying to reach 9-1-1 to report actual danger.

Lorna Dudash is a prime example of how not to use the emergency telephone system.



Lorna Dudash: Poster girl for stupid 9-1-1 calls


Lorna Dudash dialed 9-1-1 with an emergency, a love emergency. The Oregon woman called 9-1-1 to ask that "a cutie pie" sheriff's deputy return to her house.

Two Washington County deputies had knocked on her door after neighbors phoned-in a noise complaint. After they left, Dudash phoned 9-1-1 but admitted to the dispatcher that she just wanted to meet the deputy again.

And she got a date all right - a date to appear in court. The deputy returned and arrested Dudash for misusing the 9-1-1 emergency number.

She now faces up to a year in jail and a $6,000 fine.

And while we’re on the topic of love emergencies, this looks like a case in need of immediate medical treatment!


15 comments:

  1. Oh My God! Some people, really.

    For the last 10 years I have had a recurring nightmare about someone trying to kill me I eventually find a phone and dial 911 and it just rings and rings and rings. No help comes for poor old me and I die.

    Stay off the line unless it's an emergency people! Even if it is a love emergency.

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  2. I was engaged to be married but she bloke it off!

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  3. Don't worry in South America it is 119- swear to GOD! I was robbed once at gun point, flipped out, trying to call the damn police and I can not get the flipping number to work right... I kept dialing 911! Finally my gf grabbed the phone from me and tries it... same thing! LMAO

    Great blog by the way!

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  4. Anorak time: it's 999 here because it was thought that that would be the easiest number to dial on the olde worlde telephones with a dial if it were dark or smokey. Of course 111 would have been quicker. It used to be 112 in Europe, not sure now.

    There. That was really boring.

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  5. Actually, we can dial 999, 112, or 911 - they all work here.

    There are plans to introduce a new emergency number soon, due to the increasing number of non-emergency calls (stupid crap like 'I've hurt my finger', or 'I've got an ingrown toenail' or unbelievably, 'It's 2am and I need milk, can you tell me which shops are open') hat are being received.

    911 seems to me to be the hardest number to dial in an emergency, due to the placement of the number pad - try dialing it in the dark, or in a smoke filled room as the house burns down around you.

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  6. Good morning (4:30 a.m. here) everyone! Lovely to wake up and find you’ve all visited.

    An American, Leland Gregory, wrote a book entitled, "What's the Number for 911?” containing transcripts of wacky emergency calls. The title of the book is based on an actual question posed by someone who couldn’t remember the emergency number even though they mentioned the number itself in their question.

    999 would be the easier number to dial in emergency.

    I didn’t know that South America had it backwards with 119 instead of 911. Although if you’re a South American, you could say we Canadians have it backwards.

    Why can’t they standardize the number worldwide in case someone from Canada is visiting a foreign country and has an emergency?

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  7. It's 9-9-9 because Piggy & Tazzy couldn't get the other number right, so they made it easier for them to remember.

    Daft cunts.

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  8. Awaiting: I'm glad you said it because it was the first explanation that crossed my mind.

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  9. Actually, we have no need to remember any numbers at all - we just shout 'EMERGENCY' at the phone and it dials it all by itself.

    On our mobiles, we simply press and hold '9' and it dials it by itself (or say Emergency' if we've got the voice dialling turned on).

    Actually dialling numbers manually is soooooooooooooooo last century.

    We're clever technological people, we is.

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  10. Piggy: Clever technological people... a euphemism for "geeks."

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  11. Oh my god I'm so boring I actually know why it is 999. If you are in the dark and find the dial, then you find the last hole and dial it three times. Of course now we have digital phones it's no help at all.

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  12. Tom: Look who's here! It's Tom!
    *beams signal across ocean*
    Aren't you a know-it-all? Well done, Tom. There is one flaw in this theory. I agree that the 9 would be easy to find as it's the last hole on the dial. But it's also the hole that takes longest to come full circle. Thus prolonging the time it takes to get through to the emergency centre. No?

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  13. You are so right MJ. Those vital seconds could be a matter of life and death, and almost certainly were. Thank the good Lord above for the invention of the digital phone.

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  14. Well...being the wife of a cop I can tell you that women so that shit all the time. It pisses me off to no end to. I may be 5'2" but I will put a redneck, mud hole stomping ass whuppin on a bitch that messes with my husband. I will make my whole STATE look bad. A stripper made the mistake of coming on to my husband and she didn't know I was his wife. Before I knew it, I was on her so hard she kept screaming 'yall stop'. It's the only time I've ever hit another human being out of anger.

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  15. *makes note to leave Maddie's husband the-hell-alone*

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