At Least Someone's Doing Their Job

A few months ago, my mom was trying to phone my sister in Germany. It is a long, complicated string of numbers, but it starts off with the international code of 011. My mom started punching in the numbers when all of a sudden she could hear a voice saying, "911...what's your emergency?". Mom quickly explained that she was trying to phone an international number and hung up. As she was punching in my sister's number for the second time, again she heard, "911...what's your emergency?". My mom apologized again and said she didn't understand how this kept happening. Yes, everything was okay, she was just dialing an international number. And, again, she hung up.

When she picked up the phone to try dialing a third time, there was no dial tone. Instead, she heard a woman's voice saying, "Ma'am, I wasn't finished asking you questions and I am keeping your line open. Are you sure everything is all right?". My mom was slightly exasperated by this point, said that everything was fine, answered all the questions and hung up.

While all of this was going on, my dad was outside tinkering in the garage. A cop car drove up to the front of the house, the officer got out and asked my dad if everything was all right. My dad (having no idea about what happened with mom's three conversations with 911) said that there was no problem there. The officer got back in his car and started to drive down the street. When he was about six houses away, my dad saw the car stop, turn around and come back to the house. Once again, the officer got out. He said he needed to speak with the woman in the house. Dad was 100% confused by this time, but he opened the door and called for mom to come to the door. The officer needed to visually see that mom was okay.

While you may be thinking "Wow! What a job well done by that fine officer!", you have to stop and realize that, as the officer drove away the first time, the 911 operator would have been giving him shit for taking the man's word that everything was okay (when, really, the woman could have been tied up and been forced to tell the operator that everything was fine). Kudos to the 911 operator for not only doing her job, but for doing it very, very well.