I’m Just Curious: “911” called

by Debbie Walker

I love it when things happen in daily life and it turns out to give me the next week’s column. That’s what happened on Thursday, April 27.

Ken and I were coming back to Burnham from Waterville; there was nothing unusual about that. I heard my cell phone making a noise, usually that wouldn’t be unusual but it wasn’t ringing and I heard someone talking. I picked it up and spoke into it. There was a voice saying it was the 911 operator.

My phone had called 911 all by itself. Oh, I felt so bad because I know how busy these people are with real emergencies; I didn’t want to waste their time.

I was ready to end the call so the woman could go on to help a real emergency. What I didn’t think of was this woman needed to make sure I wasn’t her next emergency. We verified where I was at the time, my name, my address and was anyone telling me to say I was “okay?” I was able to assure her that we were fine and I apologized again for my phone’s bad behavior.

We rode the rest of the way home without any more incidents. Things were normal for the rest of the afternoon and evening until… There was a knock on the door. It was after dark and neither of us had any idea who it might be. So Ken went to the door and opened it. He was quite surprised to see the smiling face of a Waldo county sheriff’s deputy looking back at him.

This was a follow-up visit to the afternoon’s phone call with the 911 operator. I was so surprised; I didn’t expect a follow-up visit. But I did understand the concern for safety.

Today this was a funny situation but I am sure that is not what these people deal with daily. Their caller could actually be in a life or death situation and desperately need help.

I was told that cell phones often call 911. From what I was told people usually just hang up without talking to the operator. When an operator calls back (part of the job) that number people very often will not answer the call. I don’t know if that is because of embarrassment or bother.

The job these operators have is very serious and I would imagine rather stressful. I certainly didn’t want to add to anyone’s stress. I know this would not be a job for me; I admire them.

I’m just curious if you ever had this experience? Contact me at dwdaffy@yahoo.com sub: 911

Thanks for reading.