The work of emergency dispatchers is incredibly challenging and sensitive. It’s because of their dedication, speed, sound judgment, and perseverance that lives are saved. But this job takes a toll. It is extremely stressful. Often, in the most unexpected ways.
Heroic 911 operators opened up about the strangest and scariest calls they’ve ever gotten in a couple of brutally honest online threads. There, they spilled everything, including the emotional impact that these bizarre emergencies have. You’ll find their tales below. Warning: some of these stories are very disturbing.
#1
Obligatory "not 911 operator." I'm the son of the caller.
My dad called 911 late one night to report hitting a 6 foot tall chicken while driving and running off nto the ditch. He had just crashed his car and his voice was a bit shaky on the phone, so the operator asked him to repeat himself a couple of times and then promised to send someone to help. The first cop on scene got out of his car with a breathalyzer in hand. By the time he got to the back of my dad's car, he was laughing hysterically over his radio telling people that it wasn't a DUI call; my dad actually did hit a 6 foot tall chicken.
And that's the story about the night my dad and all the local cops learned about emu farming.
My dad called 911 late one night to report hitting a 6 foot tall chicken while driving and running off nto the ditch. He had just crashed his car and his voice was a bit shaky on the phone, so the operator asked him to repeat himself a couple of times and then promised to send someone to help. The first cop on scene got out of his car with a breathalyzer in hand. By the time he got to the back of my dad's car, he was laughing hysterically over his radio telling people that it wasn't a DUI call; my dad actually did hit a 6 foot tall chicken.
And that's the story about the night my dad and all the local cops learned about emu farming.
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103points
Based on the findings of one study that looked at the chronic health effects that police communications workers experience at work, they are impacted by a number of the same stressors that law enforcement officers in patrol do.
The main stressors that 911 operators experience involve the h**h-stakes nature of some calls, understaffing issues, stress related to supervisors, and recruitment practices. On top of that, there is the sedentary nature of the job that directly impacts their health.
Emergency operators often have unhealthy eating habits and deal with insufficient sleep. This, in turn, can lead to weight gain, obesity, irregular sleep schedules, hypertension, or diabetes.
This naturally leads to the conclusion that some of the most important employees on your payroll end up suffering physically, mentally, and emotionally. Not all of them will be able to get adequate support to heal and continue working well. Others might decide to quit entirely, in search of a more peaceful career.
#2
Another funnier style call that we had was during the winter. It was extremely cold for where we live, (Alabama, in the single digits) We had been getting several calls about water pipes bursting. I took a 911 call right after taking 6-7 calls about pipes bursting. Naturally the woman sounds very disgruntled and said that her water just broke at 3:30 in the morning. Me, not thinking, asked her who her water was through. She responds with, "What the f**k are you asking me, my water just broke!". That is when the light bulb lit up, she was pregnant.
baby was born healthy by the way.
baby was born healthy by the way.
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67points
#3
It was my call to 911 but something tells me they’ve relayed this story from their perspective a few times.
I got hit from behind by one of my 220-pound Suffolk ram sheep. Never saw it coming. Knocked the snot out of me. Barely escaped as he was trying to finish me off. Once outside the fence, I went into shock as all the adrenaline drained. Had to call 911. Overheard the EMT in the ambulance trying to clarify to the E.R. that the patient they were transporting was NOT a victim of pedestrian vs truck. The hospital thought I’d been hit by a Dodge Ram pickup.
I got hit from behind by one of my 220-pound Suffolk ram sheep. Never saw it coming. Knocked the snot out of me. Barely escaped as he was trying to finish me off. Once outside the fence, I went into shock as all the adrenaline drained. Had to call 911. Overheard the EMT in the ambulance trying to clarify to the E.R. that the patient they were transporting was NOT a victim of pedestrian vs truck. The hospital thought I’d been hit by a Dodge Ram pickup.
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61points
Meanwhile, another study found that a whopping 17.6% to 24.6% of 911 telecommunicators self-reported having probable posttraumatic stress disorder (aka PTSD). What’s more, 23.9% of operators reported probable depression. This is the result of constantly being exposed to traumatic experiences in the line of duty.
According to the 911 Training Institute, dispatchers have no warning before taking potentially traumatic calls. “While dispatchers warn field responders about what they will face in the line of duty, 9-1-1 pros hear the sounds of violence, tragedy, and suffering in their headsets without warning, when it is still raw and fresh.”
#4
Lots of calls from elderly people hallucinating because of a UTI. One woman had been following CPR instructions and when the crew arrived, she was doing (very gentle) chest compressions on her slightly confused, but very much alive, cat.
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58points
#5
Obligatory not a 911 operator, but my soon to be mother in law:
She got a call that a guy and his room mate were doing d***s. H****n. And the caller’s friend overdosed. So this absolute Mensa hooks up a couple wires to the inside of a toaster, turns the toaster on, and attaches the wires to his unconscious friend’s testicles.
Honestly, not sure if it successfully electrocuted the unconscious guy, but the caller definitely seemed to think it would wake his friend up.
My mother in law’s response? “Sir please don’t do that again”.
She got a call that a guy and his room mate were doing d***s. H****n. And the caller’s friend overdosed. So this absolute Mensa hooks up a couple wires to the inside of a toaster, turns the toaster on, and attaches the wires to his unconscious friend’s testicles.
Honestly, not sure if it successfully electrocuted the unconscious guy, but the caller definitely seemed to think it would wake his friend up.
My mother in law’s response? “Sir please don’t do that again”.
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57points
#6
"911 what's your emergency?"
"There's a pig in the road. A big one."
"Sir where are you?"
"At the stoplight. It's the biggest pig I have ever seen. Get someone here now!" (One stoplight town, the bar is near the intersection.)
"how big is the pig?"
"About the size of a Volkswagen?"
"How much have you had to drink?"
"I'm not drunk! It's a giant pig the size of a small car! What is wrong with you people?"
Officers show up to find a full grown hippo that had escaped from the local wild animal park. Big... pig.
Eta: this was at 2:30 am when the bars close.
"There's a pig in the road. A big one."
"Sir where are you?"
"At the stoplight. It's the biggest pig I have ever seen. Get someone here now!" (One stoplight town, the bar is near the intersection.)
"how big is the pig?"
"About the size of a Volkswagen?"
"How much have you had to drink?"
"I'm not drunk! It's a giant pig the size of a small car! What is wrong with you people?"
Officers show up to find a full grown hippo that had escaped from the local wild animal park. Big... pig.
Eta: this was at 2:30 am when the bars close.
56points
What’s more, operators often don’t get any closure after the events are over. In short, they don’t know what happens to the people who were in danger.
That’s on top of the fact that dispatchers are, essentially, sending their first responder colleagues potentially into harm. “The dispatcher places the very highest priority on assuring ‘everyone comes home safe.’ Yet they cannot ultimately protect their responders from danger in the field.” If someone is injured or loses their life, it leads to trauma and guilt.
Other major stressors include the h**h call volume and frequency, constantly shifting between lots of h**h-priority tasks, barely any downtime to destress, and a lack of appreciation. The result is a hit to motivation and higher turnover rates.
#7
I was a "0" operator, not 911. But, many small towns didnt have 911 so I got quite a few emergency calls.
I got a call from a 13 year old girl once that had just gotten home from school. She couldnt find her father, but there was an ominous note there that she had read to me. I had police on the way and told her to wait outside for them. Rather, I heard her walking around her house, going from room to room, opening doors looking for him. After about a minute, she let out a blood curdling scream yelling "HES HERE! HES HERE! HES HERE!"
He was hanging dead in the garage. Was a terrible call. I got a 15 minute break and had to get back on the board taking calls again. Its been almost 20 years and I can still hear her voice.
I got a call from a 13 year old girl once that had just gotten home from school. She couldnt find her father, but there was an ominous note there that she had read to me. I had police on the way and told her to wait outside for them. Rather, I heard her walking around her house, going from room to room, opening doors looking for him. After about a minute, she let out a blood curdling scream yelling "HES HERE! HES HERE! HES HERE!"
He was hanging dead in the garage. Was a terrible call. I got a 15 minute break and had to get back on the board taking calls again. Its been almost 20 years and I can still hear her voice.
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56points
#8
Not me, but my cousin. She had this lady who would call regularly and often make up stories, most likely due to loneliness, but they still had to send someone out every time. So one day when they got a call from her they figured it would be another one of those calls.
Cousin: "911, what's your emergency?"
Her: "There's a lion in my living room."
Cousin: "There's a lion in your living room? What's it doing?"
Her: Pauses to ask it what it was doing "I don't know, just standing there. Can you send someone over?"
Turned out there actually was a lion cub in her living room that had escaped from a circus or something nearby.
Cousin: "911, what's your emergency?"
Her: "There's a lion in my living room."
Cousin: "There's a lion in your living room? What's it doing?"
Her: Pauses to ask it what it was doing "I don't know, just standing there. Can you send someone over?"
Turned out there actually was a lion cub in her living room that had escaped from a circus or something nearby.
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54points
#9
I had a woman call in who was hiding in her closet and told me her ex-boyfriend was breaking into her house. She told me that they had a violent history. I got her information and told her to do what she needed to do to stay safe and leave the line open no matter what. While officers were enroute I heard him come in through a window and start beating her. He heard sirens coming and took off. Luckily, since she left the line open I was able to let the officers know when he took off and they caught him near the apartment.
I think the worst part was the two minutes after he left, I sat there listening to the woman weeping and not being able to comfort her because she was too far away to hear me.
I think the worst part was the two minutes after he left, I sat there listening to the woman weeping and not being able to comfort her because she was too far away to hear me.
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54points
Which of these 911 operator calls that we’ve featured here today shook you the most? If you’ve ever worked in dispatch, emergency services, or law enforcement, what was the most terrifying, dangerous situation you ever experienced? On the flip side, what's the most bizarre, non-threatening call you've gotten? If you feel like opening up, you can do so in the comments below.
#10
A friend of the family was (potentially still is) a paramedic with the helicopter service here. I'm not sure if this was when he was a ground based or in the helicopter but he enjoyed this story.
He was called out to a head trauma incident and arrived to find a man sitting in his living room, acting very normal for a call like that. So he asked what was wrong and the man said "well, I've got this here," and turned to show a screwdriver buried to the hilt in his head.
So the paramedic obviously said something along the lines of how that isn't good and the man said "nah, it's alright," and began turning the screwdriver.
They told him to stop.
He was called out to a head trauma incident and arrived to find a man sitting in his living room, acting very normal for a call like that. So he asked what was wrong and the man said "well, I've got this here," and turned to show a screwdriver buried to the hilt in his head.
So the paramedic obviously said something along the lines of how that isn't good and the man said "nah, it's alright," and began turning the screwdriver.
They told him to stop.
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49points
#11
I answered the phone and gave my usual, "911, do you need Police, Fire, or Ambulance? " and the person on the other end just started screaming, "BEEEEEEEEEEEEES!! BEEEEEEES!!" I assumed that the bees were neither mugging him nor on fire, so I put it through to ambulance because what the even.
45points
#12
Not me, but my dad works in an emergency room, and one time he had to treat someone who had been attacked by an owl. The owl was unconscious on the side of the road, and she thought it was gone. Because she didn't want the children on the school bus to see the dead owl, she decided the best course of action would be to put the owl in the back of her car. Unfortunately the owl was alive. It woke up and attacked her.
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43points
#13
I was also working the night John Lennon was killed. Call came in as a male shot ifo Dakota. When we learned from dispatch that it was John Lennon the whole floor (200+ people) just went silent. The Beatles were the first album I owned. For me, it was the end of something so ethereal I can't even name it - possibly the ideal that we might be able to change the world for the better.
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41points
#14
My stepdads a firefighter and he told this story to me and my sister about 5 years ago and it's stuck with me.
As a firefighter he also attends car crashes to help cut people out, etc. The story he told us was that he was called to a lorry and car collision, which never end well really. In the car were three adults and one young girl about 6-7, if memory serves me right it was the family friend driving, with the others in the back with the little girl in the middle backseat.
They crashed into a lorry and the car went under it, decapitating all the adults but missing the girl. She had to sit in that car, surrounded by the decapitated bodies of her family and friend for around four hours before they could get her out.
He also told us about how when brains are splattered across the windscreen it reminds him of raw mince, I guess when you deal with that stuff a lot you grow kind of immune to it.
EDIT: Should clarify, a 'lorry' is the British term for truck. Like a 8 wheeler truck for transporting things.
As a firefighter he also attends car crashes to help cut people out, etc. The story he told us was that he was called to a lorry and car collision, which never end well really. In the car were three adults and one young girl about 6-7, if memory serves me right it was the family friend driving, with the others in the back with the little girl in the middle backseat.
They crashed into a lorry and the car went under it, decapitating all the adults but missing the girl. She had to sit in that car, surrounded by the decapitated bodies of her family and friend for around four hours before they could get her out.
He also told us about how when brains are splattered across the windscreen it reminds him of raw mince, I guess when you deal with that stuff a lot you grow kind of immune to it.
EDIT: Should clarify, a 'lorry' is the British term for truck. Like a 8 wheeler truck for transporting things.
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40points
#15
As a 911 dispatcher, PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING; This question is GREAT on Reddit, and even in a personal question with a close friend. But please, please, PLEASE.... do not ask this question in public, and especially at any social format. Many of us dispatchers have VERY difficult calls that can linger with us for years. It can be hard to talk about, and in front of a group / gathering, it can induce anxiety. Just bear that in mind. Thanks!
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40points
#16
Okay so my friend is a former 911 operator and she told me that she got this call from what sounded like an old man. Be was telling her that its been awhile and that she should come back over. Like "Hey its been so long. I miss you. Do you still remember the address? 123 Street, remember?" She assumed that he was just senile or something. Turns out he had someone in his house and he didn't want them to know he was calling 911
EDIT: Ok for clarification she did dispatch someone just in case the old man was incapable of taking care of himself bc she thought he was senile and that's how they found out.
EDIT: Ok for clarification she did dispatch someone just in case the old man was incapable of taking care of himself bc she thought he was senile and that's how they found out.
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38points
#17
Was about to leave after a really calm night shift. Take one last call. This guy just ask for an ambulance for his mother like so many early in the morning. No panic or anything in his voice.
So as always I ask him whats happening before I transfer him to the paramedics. And he just say "Well I think I just killed her but Im not sure if she's dead yet" and he put the phone on the side. 30sec pass no sound.
He pick back up and tell me. Well I just made sure and stabbed her a few more times and put the knife in the sink. I'll be waiting outside bye.
9 years and still clear in my mind. Turn out he was mentally sick and her mother kept him home.
So as always I ask him whats happening before I transfer him to the paramedics. And he just say "Well I think I just killed her but Im not sure if she's dead yet" and he put the phone on the side. 30sec pass no sound.
He pick back up and tell me. Well I just made sure and stabbed her a few more times and put the knife in the sink. I'll be waiting outside bye.
9 years and still clear in my mind. Turn out he was mentally sick and her mother kept him home.
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35points
#18
The very first emergency call I took by myself during training (trainer was hooked into my phone and could jump in whenever). I answered a 911 while my trainer was trying to grab a cup of coffee from the machine (long cords) and as soon as the phone connected there was, what sounded like, an explosion and people screaming all over the place.
Scared the Jesus out of my trainer who sprinted back to the desk thinking I had just picked up some huge disaster or accident, takes over the call starts asking questions. And it turns out what we heard was just rushing water from a hot water heater that ruptured and was spewing water all over these two girls' apartment and they were freaking out not knowing what to do about it.
Bonus story:
Had a similar call a few year later, picked up to a bunch of people being loud, sounding panicked, talking about someone being locked in a car. Thought it was a child locked in a car (a very h**h priority call for my agency, due to being in Florida and a few recent deaths).
So I put the call in as Urgent, while trying to get anyone on the phone to actually talk to me. But then I hear a door open, and someone in the background scream: "ITS OUT, THE CHICKEN IS FREE" *phone disconnects*
*Florida*.
Scared the Jesus out of my trainer who sprinted back to the desk thinking I had just picked up some huge disaster or accident, takes over the call starts asking questions. And it turns out what we heard was just rushing water from a hot water heater that ruptured and was spewing water all over these two girls' apartment and they were freaking out not knowing what to do about it.
Bonus story:
Had a similar call a few year later, picked up to a bunch of people being loud, sounding panicked, talking about someone being locked in a car. Thought it was a child locked in a car (a very h**h priority call for my agency, due to being in Florida and a few recent deaths).
So I put the call in as Urgent, while trying to get anyone on the phone to actually talk to me. But then I hear a door open, and someone in the background scream: "ITS OUT, THE CHICKEN IS FREE" *phone disconnects*
*Florida*.
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34points
#19
We got a call from a woman having severe abdominal pains. Simple enough. We ask the normal questions, "are you feeling faint", "are you vomiting blood", stuff like that. Then we asked if it was traumatic or not.
"Well..."
She eventually tells us that she had a tampon stuck inside of her for more than 20 days, and she thinks that might be why she's hurting.
---------------------------------
Bonus story: I heard someone else (on a different thread) that had a funny story. This guy and his wife were playing around with various vegetables and the guy gets a carrot lodged up his... you know. So they tried to remove it so they wouldn't have to call 911. She used a pair of burger tongs and grabbed onto something and pulled, but she was actually pulling at his intestines. Fun!
If you get something stuck, just call 911. I've heard it all before. I don't care that you have a vegetable garden in there, I just want to get you help.
"Well..."
She eventually tells us that she had a tampon stuck inside of her for more than 20 days, and she thinks that might be why she's hurting.
---------------------------------
Bonus story: I heard someone else (on a different thread) that had a funny story. This guy and his wife were playing around with various vegetables and the guy gets a carrot lodged up his... you know. So they tried to remove it so they wouldn't have to call 911. She used a pair of burger tongs and grabbed onto something and pulled, but she was actually pulling at his intestines. Fun!
If you get something stuck, just call 911. I've heard it all before. I don't care that you have a vegetable garden in there, I just want to get you help.
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28points
#20
I responded to a man in his whitey tighties standing on the yellow lines in the middle of the road. Arrived on scene to find this to be true. The reason he was in the middle of the road was to practice his karate moves on cars. Dispatch was even having a hard time keeping from laughing.
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28points