Not Different Calls, but a Different Me

Calls this morning, minutes after hitting the chair:

first came in as a 911 hang up. That's what we call it when someone dials 911 and hangs up before we answer. what a lot of people don't realize is that the phone company completes that call anyways, and the caller ID information is transmitted to the police department. When the call-taker picks up the phone on their end and says, "911 what's your emergency?" they are greeted by a dial tone.

In most call centers, the standard procedure is to call the number back if one comes through on the ANI/ALI relay. In the event the call came from a house phone (so the caller id includes an address) we will send an officer if we don't get an answer on the call back to the house.

So when I got a dial tone on a call this morning, I "dumped" the info into my call screen and typed, "911 HANGUP...ON CALL BACK...."

Ringing...kept ringing...and kept ringing.... I was about to put the call in with the notes..."NO ANSWER ON CALL BACK."

Then someone picked up. A man.

"this is Russell from the police department. I just received a 911 call from this line what's going on there?

man: Well something's going on here. so you probably did get a call.

"What is going on, sir?

man: I just got a little worked up and went after my wife. Here talk to her.

"Hello?"

The wife gets on the phone.

wife: hello?

"Hi, this is Russell from the police department, what's going on there?"

(By this time, officers were already on the way.)

I won't even get into the rest of it. It's painfully cliche'. He hit her, I don't know how many times, but she didn't want him to get in trouble. She was even telling him to get in the car and leave before we got there.

He was a vet dealing with PTSD, and non-compliant with meds so he sometimes lashed out. I kept telling her that despite her protestations we were coming, officers were on their way and getting even closer.

It didn't make her angry. but she was despairing. The hardest part was hearing the 7 yo in the background absolutely distraught, crying the whole time because she felt she was going to lose her father.

I overheard the father telling her to go to her room, and the mother trying to explain that she was scared and she just wanted to hug him.

The recording was only 4 minutes long, but it felt like one of the longest calls I've ever taken.


Almost right after that, I get a call from a woman who was walking her dog when a tween girl comes running and screaming down the street. She was barefoot, and nearly incoherent. The caller didn't know if she had been attacked or if she was lost or hurt in some kind of accident or what.

The girl was telling the caller, in bits and pieces, that her bed had been moved, that she woke up in her closet, and her mom was missing. She was sobbing in the background. Eventually, we were able to find out that the girl's mother had recently passed. She probably did wake up in the closet in her house, just a few doors down, but she had no recollection of how she got there.

She had a small cut on one foot from running down the street without shoes.

I spent the next hour or so looking at pictures of my daughter on my phone an stored on my computer: wishing I could be home chasing her around our coffee table, turning her upside down and tickling her and laughing.

This job is what I love to do. I'm not bad at it. But it did get a lot harder when I came back to it after becoming a father.

Just When I Thought it Was Safe to Pick up the Phone

So it's been a while since my last place post, but I got a great call today!

me: Police Dept, this is Russell.

caller: ah yeah. I'm trying to figure out how I should approach this. I lived in Denver for about 30 years and I ran across this practicing witch that did something to me
and I came back to wichita, ks, here, and I've had mental problems and physical problems, heart attacks, strokes, uh, gall bladder attacks, liver problems. uh and it's..

me: hold on sec for me. Okay, where was this?

Caller: Arvada

me: And how long ago?

Caller: Uh this was like 15 years ago but my health is getting worse and uh, apparently i'm supposed to call and turn in some dealer or something--which I don't know anything about. just that he's the possible one that worked in a bar, uh, there, called the Rear Inn.

Caller: The problems I'm havin' are getting worse. As far as I know this should stop it, (By this I think he meant that turning in the drug dealer, he would break the curse, but at this point I was mostly listening to hear what other strange things that might come over the line.) but if not, I'm gonna have to get a lawyer and some police departments...I've tried the FBI, but since I was doing drugs back then they said it was all mental.

Me: Okay...,

Caller: But I know its not

Me: Okay.

Caller: so no one wants to prosecute this gal because... i'm... it's...it's probably hard to find out if they are doing witch craft of black magic or whatever you wanna talk about.

Me: Yeah.

Caller: But i'm dying here. I'm gonna get to where I can't work.

Me: ...And you live in Wichita?

Caller: Yeah.

Me: Have you called your local police department? [This is me trying to pass the buck.]

Caller: Yeah. and they said it was mental. I tried to get a hold of the FBI and I couldn't get past the secretary.

Me: Okay. Yeah. See, the problem is, we really don't have any...there's no criminal statute we could employ to prosecute them.

Caller: Yeah. I know. that's the hard thing. I don't know how to go about getting rid of this, this problem. when I, when I let her live with me, within 2 weeks, they already had the police sayin' that I stole her merchandise and stuff.

Me: Okay...

Caller: So they had something on me. I don't know what it was, er...

Me: Hmm. yeah. there's not really anything we would be able to do for you sir.

Caller: Alright so I guess i'm going to have to get some kind of disability lawyer or something and retire early.

Me: Sounds like it. And you'll probably have to prove your disability is work related... but you've already said it isn't.

Caller: Oh no. It's witchcraft.

Caller: So I'm barkin up a tree.

Me: Yeah. I guess if that's your belief system, you could try and find someone that would do something for you to counteract that.

Caller: Yeah. well, that's what I was trying to see. to see if there was someone that actually believed me and knew what was going on. I mean, you see on tv all the time, these psychics and stuff.

Me: Not necessarily through the police dept. we wouldn't have any resource like that.

Caller: Yeah i know. Um...uh...Gang Related, and stuff like that I know. (I have no idea what the movie has to do with this guy's situation, but whatever...) Alright. I figured I'd try.

Me: No problem. You have a good day sir.

Caller: You too. Bye.