Another AAA SC

[bigjimaz]

AAA prioritizes it’s calls, or at least they did when I ran calls. People who were safe at home with a dead battery were low priority calls. Accidents were top priority followed by people stranded for one reason or another along a roadway, followed by people stranded at businesses or other places of safety.

The weather was horrible this day. It was mid-January, the temperature was near zero. I was running around like the proverbial headless chicken with dead battery calls (Why people don’t put their cars in the empty stall of their heated garage I’ll never know.) when I got a high priority call of someone who was locked out of their car at the mall with their baby locked inside, car not running.

Naturally being concerned for the baby’s safety I ran like hell to try to do what I could. It took 15 minutes to get to the mall parking lot where the customer was located. Thank God she gave the precise location where her car was. The customer was waving frantically as I pulled up to the year old Cadillac.

I raced from the truck, grabbed my lockout set and came beside the frantic customer who was urgently begging me to please hurry. I assured her that I would do whatever it took. Then I turned and saw that her “Baby” was a 120 pound Newfoundland, sitting on the back seat and wagging his tail as if I had a bowl full of Alpo.

I realize that some people think of their pets as family, but that damn dog was most likely warmer than I was.

[danegrous_21]

, while i never own any pets whatsoever(i have allergies to pet dander) i respect people love for animals untill they put animals above human, imo

[CrazedClerk]

Hmmm, would it have been possible to refer her to a general locksmith or are you required to free the pup since you're already on scene?

If it were me, I might've turned it over to a locksmith if I could and taught that woman a lesson. Dogs have big fur coats on, they aren't going to freeze that quickly.

[Blinky]

AAA dispatcher here, former driver, If I could have I would have slapped her. I always get mad when I see a baby locked in vehicle priority and I find out that it's a dog. Unless it's 90 degrees out side, your dog is fine.

On a lighter note, one of my driver responded to a dog locked in veh call spent 15 minutes trying to get it unlocked. The dog kept jumping on the power lock button. I wish I could have been there to see that one.

[bigjimaz]

I could have pretended not to be able to get it open if I wanted, but I wasn't about to subject anyone else to the weather that day. However the dispatcher flagged the account of that member once they found out that the baby was 120 pounds and covered in black fur.

[Becks]

I love pets, I really do, but I would NEVER refer to any pet of mine as "my baby", especially in situations like that.

[protege]

That's what bricks are for

I know if I got that call, I probably would have been a bit pissed. Not so much because of the dog...but because I could have been helping someone else who deserved it. Instead, I had to waste my time.

[Kelly Lynne]

And yet, I'm sure that if she'd said that her dog was locked in the car, she'd have gotten a slightly higher priority than if she herself had just been locked out at the mall. (Because, while she can go inside, and the dog is plenty warm, it also doesn't have food, water, or a place to go to the bathroom if the wait gets really long.)

For the love of heaven, people, do not lie to the people who have to prioritize your requests for help! That includes the 911 operator as well as AAA.

[BookstoreEscapee]

My ex-dog's a short-haired chihuahua so he might not last so long in a cold car, but if I were in that situation I'd still tell them it was a dog and he'd probably be ok for a little while. If I had a giant dog with lots of fur, I definitely would tell them that. Geez. But then I'd never leave my dog in the car no matter what the weather.

[Kilamon]

These remind me of BlondeStar. In my area there were these commercials on the radio that spoofed OnStar called BlondeStar. One of these gems included a woman who called blondestar because she had locked herself INSIDE the car. Definately give the spoofs a listen if you need a laugh.

[myswtghst]

What makes this particularly sucky is not the fact that she lied about it being a dog, but the fact that her lie may have ranked her call above someone who needed her help more. I'm with Kelly Lynne

For the love of heaven, people, do not lie to the people who have to prioritize your requests for help! That includes the 911 operator as well as AAA.

Sheesh. I love my pets, but as a ZOL major who's worked with animals her whole life, I'm well aware that they are not "babies" and that a dog will be fine in that situation--esp a Newfie!

[flybye023]

I just saw this BlondeStar video a couple of weeks ago:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...16420567729697

Hilarious