911 Prank Call Idiocy

[LillFilly]

I'm doing my rounds at about 11PM at night. Everything has been locked-up at 9:00PM, and the areas still open were quiet.

Then I got a call from 911 dispatch. They told me that they'd just gotten a call from a man who said he was being held IN THE MALL against his will. Another man then got on the line and told dispatch that HE was (my mall's name) Security and that the caller was a mental patient and had escaped from the hospital.

Luckily, they called our security phone first without sending over a bunch of officers! I also explained to them that if the call was not from the security phone's number, it was a prank; also that I (female) was the only one here and had had the phone all day, and that the mall had been closed since 9.

At least nothing bad came of this, but I did have to do a nice little write-up for my manager for in the morning.

Who makes a prank call saying they're mall security? I can only figure it was someone mad at us and wanted to put us in bad light.

[underemployeed]

I read an article in reader's digest about why 911 sucks in many areas. (999 in Britain). They cited an example where a guy called 911 because a fast food restaurant was out of a Mt. Dew or something of that nature.

[HorrorFrogPrincess]

I read an article in reader's digest about why 911 sucks in many areas. (999 in Britain). They cited an example where a guy called 911 because a fast food restaurant was out of a Mt. Dew or something of that nature.

And 911 sucks because they didn't do anything about it, or what?

[dbuzman]

I read an article in reader's digest about why 911 sucks in many areas. (999 in Britain). They cited an example where a guy called 911 because a fast food restaurant was out of a Mt. Dew or something of that nature.

That isn't 911 suck, that is suck on the part of idiots who think the world revolves around them.

[vstorevigilante]

The woman flipping out about McDonalds being out of McNuggets will forever remain my favorite form of 911 abuse.

[mikoyan29]

If a person is going to abuse 911 because a restaurant is out of mountain dew then he should be made to pay a fine. Or at least I hope he was made to pay a fine. Don't people realize that when you call 911 your number is logged?

[lordlundar]

If a person is going to abuse 911 because a restaurant is out of mountain dew then he should be made to pay a fine. Or at least I hope he was made to pay a fine. Don't people realize that when you call 911 your number is logged?

It depends on the system actually. Basic ones do not log anything, which is why the dispatcher has to ask for an address and other information. Enhanced systems log the number, address, and "renter" (the name on the bill) to limit prank calls. There's a new version of the enhanced system that's in development which can also give a location of a cell phone as well, either through triangulation or a GPS chip.

[trunks2k]

If a person is going to abuse 911 because a restaurant is out of mountain dew then he should be made to pay a fine. Or at least I hope he was made to pay a fine. Don't people realize that when you call 911 your number is logged?

IIRC the woman who called 911 because McDonalds was out of chicken mcnuggets was arrested.

[trunks2k]

There's a new version of the enhanced system that's in development which can also give a location of a cell phone as well, either through triangulation or a GPS chip.

OOOO! OOOO! I could go on about this at length since I do this for a living. It's not really triangulation. In the US the most popular network based location technology for cell phones (i.e. not GPS) is UTDOA.

WARNING-MATH AND SCIENCE AHEAD:

It works like kinda like this (greatly simplified) - consider two cell phone towers, X and Y; and you are somewhere that your cell phone can be heard by both towers. Then, you say the word "hello" on your phone. The signal that is transmitting that word is heard by both towers and tower X gets that signal 1ms before tower Y does. So there was a 1ms difference in the arrival of the signal. Knowing this, and the speed the signal travels, we can use a simple formula to draw a hyperbola (kinda a curved, infinite, line) that represents every possible point you could be at which the 1ms difference in arrival would result.

At this point, there's infinite number of spots you can be. So we add in another tower, Z. Let's say that the difference in time tower Z hears the signal and the time tower X hears the signal is 2ms. Now, we can draw a second hyperbola. Due to the shape of a hyperbola, the two will intersect each other at two points.

Now we know you can be at one of two places. To get the final position, we add in a fourth tower, T. If the difference in signal arrival between at T and X is 3ms, then we can draw a third hyperbola. That hyperbola will also intersect the first hyperbola at two points, one of which is one of the same points as the second hyperbola. Where all three hyperbolas intersect is your location.

[Green_Fairy]

when i was about 10 or so i was reeeeeally bored at one of my brother's soccer games. so i went to the nearest pay phone and dialed 911 because i thought it wouldn't do anything if i didn't put in money. apparently 911's free on payphones because someone answered. i hung up and ran back to my parents crying because i thought i was going to get arrested for prank-calling 911. like police officers were gonna show up and haul my butt to jail or something.

[Magpie]

OOOO! OOOO! I could go on about this at length since I do this for a living. It's not really triangulation. In the US the most popular network based location technology for cell phones (i.e. not GPS) is UTDOA.

WARNING-MATH AND SCIENCE AHEAD:
...

I thought that the "..." was normally referred to as triangulation, even though it's distance based rather than straight-line based. (I'm assuming that "proper" triangulation is what you do for map-making to get scale right, with lining things up in a straight line from various points).

[underemployeed]

And 911 sucks because they didn't do anything about it, or what?

Sorry, didn't elaborate, the state of the 911 system sucks because it is overburdened by these idiots who call in, so the person who has a robber in their home has to wait to get an operator.
Not really the operators fault they have to sort through stupid calls on top of the amount of prank calls.

[Andara Bledin]

Where all three hyperbolas intersect is your location.

I thought that the "..." was normally referred to as triangulation, even though it's distance based rather than straight-line based. (I'm assuming that "proper" triangulation is what you do for map-making to get scale right, with lining things up in a straight line from various points).

Yeah, that's pretty much triangulation, only with a 3rd reference point, instead of the usual 2.

So, maybe you'd call that quadrangulation, instead.

^-.-^

[Indica]

Cute 911 story:

A friend of mine's daughter was .. I don't recall exactly what she was doing, but misbehaving while her mother was in the shower. Mother comes out of the shower and chases the little girl down... little girl runs to phone and dials 911: My mommy is naked and chasing me!!

Apparently the cops showed up later were very polite (and probably laughing silently).

[Chromatix]

Every emergency number I've ever heard of is always free, from any phone. You don't have to fumble for change at a payphone, or worry about the cost of it if you're on the breadline. On landlines, if you can get a dialtone, you can get to emergency, even if the account is otherwise blocked.

Usually even mobiles without a SIM installed can call to emergency, and some will even recognise the digits being pressed while the keypad is locked (which causes a lot of accidental calls).