911 Operators Share The 50 Dumbest Calls They Ever Received

Me: "911 this line is recorded, what is your emergency?"

Caller: "hi, um I don't know if this counts, but four days ago I noticed a Uhual truck in my neighbor's driveway."

Me: "okay?"

Caller: "Well the two guys looked really suspicious. They were walking around the house like they didn't belong there."

Me: "Four days ago?"

Caller: "it's been bothering me because my neighbors have been on vacation and no one should be there."

Me: ......"okay we'll take a look."

The entire house had been ransacked. All the valuables were gone. Too much time had passed for the local pawn shops to have the items because they know what is stolen and needs to be moved quickly. LPT: if something doesn't seem right don't ever second guess calling the cops immediately. If the operator gives you attitude, make a complaint.

Police 911 operator here for 15 years. The stories I have.

* I've had someone call 911 to know how long to smoke a brisket.
* I've had someone call 911 to ask what the fines for parking tickets are.
* I've had someone call 911 to wish me a merry xmas when I was working at 3am on on Christmas Morning
* I've had someone call 911 report that their trunk wasn't opening and they wanted to know what to do about it.
* I've had someone call 911 in a rural community because a black dude was walking down the street and "we don't get their kind here".
* I worked on 9/11. I had people call 911 for weeks after because there were "3 brown guys in a car and I thought you should know about it."
* I've had someone call 911 because they were lonely. About 1,000 times.

And many, many more.

I've done this for a while. Do people over-use the system? Sure. But for the most part I'm happy with how our children are taught to only use 911 if it's a life or death emergency or if there's a crime in progress.

"How far down is it snowing?" All the way to the ground, now get the f**k off my emergency line!

And my personal favorite, exact quote:
"My washing machine is telling me to file for bankruptcy." This was a confused elderly lady so it was actually a little sad, but I'm including it because it left me completely speechless at the time. I think my response was, "I... you... what?"

My dad accidentally threw away the little card phones used to have where you'd write down what the quick dial buttons were for. So he decided to fill in a new one. Only issue is he didn't know what they were anymore.

So he called them. One after the other.

When he found the button for police, he got the 911 operator. Thinking quickly, he just hung up. They traced the call and sent the fire department, an ambulance, and two cop cars. My dad had to explain what he'd done. They laughed, told him to be more careful next time. No harm, no foul.

Then he continued his efforts and found the button that connected to the fire department... Everyone was sent back and they were a little less amused.

NZ has 111 operators that connect you to emergency services. I used to be a 111 operator and before are some of the dumbest things I've had

* The moon is too big

* Government spiders are in my ears again

* The neighbour has recorded me coughing and has been playing it back to me for 24 hours on high

* The people in my living room are watching coronation Street and I don't like it (plot twist! She was the only one home and had left the tv on)

* I can't turn my shower off

* DEEEEZ NUUUTS! (More times than I can count)

* Everyone is driving at me and I don't like it (plot twist! He was driving the motorhome ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD!!).

Not a 911 operator, but a former EMT. We had a call for a guy with a toothache. At 3AM. On a Saturday. The guy stated that he'd been hurting for about three weeks, and no it wasn't getting any worse. He was insisting on going to the hospital no matter how much we discouraged him.

Then he keeled over and went into cardiac arrest. Not so stupid anymore.

Not on operator but once someone called cops on me for 'leaving an unattended bag' in the park by our house.
Thing was, it was in a town of less than 1000 people. Tiny park. I was there the whole time, I set it on the table while I played with my young kids. The entire park is visible from any direction. I was never more than 100 ft from my sons diaper bag and the cops came and seemed really confused when they saw me and asked if it was my bag. I was, like, yeah?
Then they told me why they came and I was floored. They were annoyed with whoever called and left without further questioning.

Every year our local police put out a list of dumb calls. Every year people call 911 because their garbage wasn’t picked up, or their internet/tv aren’t working. 🤔.

I have been in the 911 biz for over 22 years. If a caller starts the call with "I swear I'm not crazy" then you need to buckle up for some insanity. A guy started a call with those words after escaping from his apartment and running to the closest 7-11. He swore that his roommates were turning into giant crabs. The was going to show the officers that they were currently in giant cocoons transforming. As you might expect he was tripping balls.

9-1-1 dispatcher/supervisor for 5+ years here.

We get a ton of misdials because some genius at Verizon decided it would be a good idea to have phone numbers that start with "991-"

Had a woman call because her "baby" wasn't breathing, so we gave her instructions to do CPR. Medics got there and found her doing CPR on her dog.

Had another woman call saying her cat was stuck in a tree. I just knew she wanted the fire department to come save the cat, so I got my "that's only in movies/TV" speech ready. Then she said "...so my husband climbed up to get the cat and now he's stuck too.".

I once got a call from 911, "do you have a child with an emergency"? The dispatcher was being professional, but I could tell she was trying not to laugh. I say one moment as I walk upstairs to interrogate my then 5-year-old.

He loved trucks. I'd given him a video with emergency vehicles; firetrucks, ambulances, police cars. I guess they thought this was a good place to advertise "hey kids, call 911 (if you have an emergency)". Such a convincing message, he called.

I asked why. His answer: my neck hurts.

Not a 911 operator but I was a campus police officer at an expensive private university.

I got dispatched to a call of a man unloading boxes from his car in a parking garage. I was extremely confused and called our dispatch center on my personal phone to try to get more details. Turns out someone had seen a black man unloading boxes from his car, and baselessly suggested that the car was stolen. I just drove around the parking garage for a minute and cleared the call.

Once at the hotel I used to work for, a guest called 911 intending to reach me at the front desk. The 911 Operator called me back saying likely the woman was a moron but asked me to go check out the room anyway. I did and the woman kept saying the print on the phone said to dial 911, which is correct but it also says to do so in an emergency. It further says to dial 0 to reach the front desk, both of which should be pretty much basic for anyone who has spent any time at all in the US.

The best part was that I could maintain my professional helpfulness and still got to see her husband just disgusted with her stupidity.

My dad told me about multiple ridiculous 911 calls during his time as a paramedic. One of the most ridiculous was a woman called for “being out of milk” and that she needed them to get some for her. Happened twice with the same woman. She didn’t have dementia as they initially suspected, turns out she was just super entitled.

Firefighter friend years ago sent on a call where a family reported white powder on their table.

I think he said they thought it was anthrax. Crew quickly located the source of the "anthrax"...opened box of powdered donuts.

When I was a kid I called 911 and yelled: "NAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH SYYBENNNYAHHHHHHHHHH BADAGEESEEEEBABAOOOOHHHHHHHH" into the phone. The Lion King had just come out and I thought it was hilarious. After the third or fourth time they sent a police officer to the house and he gave me a stern talking to. My mom was pretty embarrassed.

Paramedic here,

Once we had a young woman call 911 around 2am saying that her legs were turning blue. Turns out she had worn a new pair of jeans to the club that night.

My dad grew up in a small town. One year while back home visiting his mom he forgot some laundry in her dryer and left for the airport. She called the police, and they actually showed up to collect the laundry then pulled my dad over on the highway and delivered it to him.

Had a drunk person call to report he was being harassed. Truth was..... He was being arrested by our officers for throwing pizza at people. All I heard in the background was one of my officers saying to him "that better not be our dispatcher on the phone" followed by some muffled talking and my officer taking the phone and saying "he will be taking a ride with us now" and hung up.

Still laugh about it to this day.



Also had a drunk woman call 911 because she couldn't remember her phone pass code.

If you want an opposite story kind of, once I called the police non-emergency line because I heard gunshots outside of my (very Canadian, very suburban) house. The officer took my report and then said, “… well, should this ever happen again I’d like to encourage you to call 911 and not the reporting desk.”

My husband and I also spent fifteen plus minutes debating if we should call or not, and the officer had questions about that too.