Being a 911 operator means you are the first line of defense for people in need. You have a hard job already.
But with every hard job comes those things that just really stick with you. They haunt you in the middle of the night. They permeate your dreams.
u/-lll-lll-lll- asked:
911/999 Operators: What's the Most Chilling Call You Have Received?
Here were some of those answers.
The Last Moment
I was a 911 Dispatcher for over a decade, and it really freaked me out when people would call, state their name and where they live, then shoot themselves while they were still on the phone. I was the last person they ever spoke to on this earth. It didn't happen often, but it haunts you. Many other types of calls haunt you as well.
That's It, It's Over
Not me, but my friends sister was a dispatcher for a reservation.
She recieved a call from a woman who's house was on fire, she had to listen to this person's screams as they were literally burned alive.
He told me she quit that week.
Had To Get Outta There
I used to be a 911 dispatcher. The call that sticks with me the most is the sister of a teenage boy who had committed suicide with a firearm. Hearing her sobbing over the phone line damn near broke me. I didn't last long in that job after that.
Too Many To Count
I was the one who responded to the calls (fire/ems) and I've had quite a few chilling experiences.
- Rolling in for and OD, I see the parents outside the door waiting for us. As I'm running in, they just coldly said, "he's upstairs, first door on the left. He usually likes heroin."
- I'm trying to cut through a car seat to get to my very dead patient. I look across the farm and see the local news filming us live. No biggie, I'm used to it. Then the dead lady's phone rings in her pocket. Stops. Rings again. Stops. Rings again. Stops. Rings again. Rinse. Repeat.
- MVA, CPR in progress. It was one of those times where you look and think to yourself, "we're only pumping because the law requires us to. He's toast." My patient, though, was from the other vehicle. No matter what question I asked him, his response was, "is he gonna be okay? I swear it was an accident! I didn't see him coming! Please tell me he's gonna live." Seems like a normal response, but the human element always got to me.
- 4 or 5 y/o presenting with febrile seizure. Nothing serious, happens more often than you think to totally normal, healthy children. But as soon as I opened the door to the ambulance, the mom drops the kid in my arms and screams in broken English, "please you fix the baby"
- Responded to a fully involved, working dwelling fire. 1 man and 1 dog, both dead. Patient degloved when we first tried to extradite the body. Dropped the corpse and focused on the fire instead once it was determined that nobody else was inside. Find out the next day, dude never changed his smoke detector batteries. Something in his circuit breaker started the fire and his dog woke him up, but by then he made it 4 paves before collapsing.
- Christmas Eve at about 0430 or 0500. Self inflicted GSW to the head. This was about a month or two after my brother in law was shot in the head in Afghanistan, so that made it extra special.
Building Mishap
Not an Operator but a Firefighter. This isn't too long ago. It's 11:00pm and my pager goes off. On my rush to the station we all hop out (only 3 others) and rush into throw on gear. It was a box alarm, the things you shouldn't pull in school kids. We rush down to scene in an Engine waiting to call a tanker or a ladder.
We evaluate the scene and start to make our way into this old 1950s built Baptist church. No smoke, no fire, nothing to require a scott. However as we're poking around there's a trail... A slight trail of blood. Our lieutenant on scene decides to follow it.
Next police arrive on scene and we call in a Rescue just incase. I was 17 and it was my 2nd year on the dept, keep in mind. Our lieutenant make his way into a small sunday school room sees a Man with a torn leg, smashed window and barley conscious. Just wide eyes and heavy breathing. He was about 26 and later learned his story.
Guy had broken into the house next door trying to steal back his guitars that his ex sold. Then this guy is attacked by a dog, don't ask what breed. So he gets his leg messed up and manages to get away and breaks the window of the church climbing in and tearing his leg more on the glass. Pull the fire alarm hoping a rescue would come
. He got lucky. But seeing a man with a mutilated mangled bleeding leg just looking into nothing in the dark basement of a church is something that messes with you for a few months.
TL;DR: Fireman sees the sheer horror of a robbery gone wrong in a dark church at night.
This Is NOT An SNL Sketch
I used to be a 911 operator and one time this guy called and was like help help I've been pooping for three days straight and I can't stop pooping and like I was like hey dude I don't really know what to do about that but I'm gonna send an ambulance over and then I sent the ambulance and they got there and I heard him on the phone they were like oh my god this guys pooping so much we don't know what to do so like they eventually Took him to the hospital and like I don't know what happened after that
Scared To Death
My mom got a call as a 911 operator, an old man said he had hit a person with his car and was frantic. Mom tried to calm him down but he had a heart attack and died while on the phone with her- turned out he actually just hit a deer.
The Most Gruesome Moments
I'm not an operator, but I work in the same room as them and have access to some of the CCTV cameras around the county.
I could hear one of the operators on the phone about a drunk man who had fallen in the road and was run over. By a truck.
I switched to the CCTV camera for that area and could see him just laying in the road, a long streak of red where his head should have been. First (and thankfully the only on so far) dead body I've ever seen.
I thought I couldn't be fazed by anything, as I'm pretty emotionally dead, but this just felt different. I had to stop work and just stare at the wall for a little while whilst I re-adjusted my emotions.
One of the main problems of my job is that I only experience the start of anything. I have no idea who that man was, if they caught the driver or anything else that happened afterwards. All I know is that the man was laying on that cold tarmac for a couple of hours before anyone turned up to cover him.
Simple, Yet Chilling
My mother worked as a 999 operator and she got a call from a guy who said he stabbed his father 7 times in the chest
TW: Suicide
I'm not an operator. My teams main job is researching information relevant to what's happening in real time so that the dispatchers are free to just concentrate on the call, but still get the information they need to direct officers correctly. All the information we find, the actions of the officers attending, everything the call taker asks and the callers replies all get written down on the system we use, kind of like a story that's still being written.
This one is of my colleagues experiences that she told me about when I started. An old man called. He was suicidal, lonely and depressed after the death of his wife and said he had a gun. It was all hands on deck to get to the guy before he killed himself.
My colleague was in charge of finding exactly where the man lived, any history of suicide or mental illness and if he actually did have access to a firearm (a lot of people say they do when phoning up about suicide, but they just want help and its a sure-fire way to get the police to attend). She managed to find out that he didn't have any legal firearms at the house and helped direct the officers to the man. The officers got to him and stated that he was just sitting in his chair with his cane.
Before they could speak to him, my colleague found one information report from a few years ago stating that the man had an interest in 'hidden weapons' ie antique or novelty weapons disguised to look like something else. Suddenly a lot of things clicked. The cane! The guns the ca..BANG
The old man blew his head off with a single barrel shotgun disguised as a gentleman's walking cane. She was given the rest of her shift off after that. Don't think she ever forgave herself for not finding that bit of information sooner.
More Disturbing For The Patron
One time right before school got out cause of corona my friend's phone was like legit possessed. It kept going all over the lock screen and typing in random numbers for the passcode and opening the emergency call thing without anyone touching it. It ended up calling 911 and she freaked out and kept hitting the end call button. It ended and she got control over her phone but they called back (which I didn't know they did lol) and she was on a call just saying sorry my phone was glitching out and when I asked who it was she just nervously laughed and said the police
If you or someone you know is struggling, you can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
To find help outside the United States, the International Association for Suicide Prevention has resources available at https://www.iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres/
Hollywood really has made a mess of entertainment and storytelling.
And it doesn't have to be that way.
There are so many people with new, fresh ideas, yet they choose to keep redoing the same old. concepts.
The people want more and better and it is possible
Nobody needs 167 sequels done poorly!
Redditor MainCrab1383 wanted the entertainment industry to listen up!!
"What do you wish Hollywood would stop doing?"
I wish they would give more chances unknowns. Every known starts an unknown, you know.
It was already great!
Behind The Scenes GIF by BET AwardsGiphy"Remakes of good movies, I don’t understand why they remake good movies, when there are tons of flops that have potential, that they could remake."
Ratchel1916
Not Real
"Characters getting punched multiple times in the face in 1 scene and having no signs of the trauma in the next scene."
kyle158
"Or shot, but they remove the bullet in a dirty motel and sew it up with freaking twine and knitting needles so now it doesn’t hurt anymore and they can go fight more bad guys unencumbered."
Parking_Aerie4454
"This reminded me of characters getting absolutely wasted then either being relatively sober in the next scene, or have no hangover the day after."
pt256
Lights Up!
"Stop making films and TV shows that we cannot see because they are too dark and cannot hear what TF people are saying. That would be a good start."
No-Abrocoma-381
"I honestly think some vfx engineers stuffed up and others thought it was a trend and continued to underexpose. Series 8 of game of Thrones was about 8 slightly diffident blank pixels running about the screen."
Procedure-Minimum
Fill her up!
"EMPTY CUPS. I hate seeing people holding cups and pretending to take drinks from obviously empty cups. Their hands never move right, or if it’s an open cup, you can literally see that it’s empty."
undecyded
"They move their hand way too fast! It's like they don't even know they're supposed to be pretending it has liquid inside."
Alcohorse
Not a 10
Interested Saturday Night Live GIF by HULUGiphy"Casting attractive people in ‘ugly’ roles."'
R_man98
"Like when the obviously gorgeous person gets a makeover."
storagerock
Casting is subjective... so they say.
Save Them!
Season 5 Nbc GIF by The OfficeGiphy"Showing incorrect CPR."
myersla
"Just do what the AED tells you to do. No thinking required."
Ok_Opportunity2693
that scene....
"Forcing a love story that makes no sense in a movie that has nothing to do with romance."
Jesuslovesmemost
"Long kisses in the middle of a 'we're running out of time' scene. We gotta save the world, but let me take my time to say goodbye/goodluck first."
aldhibain
"Long kisses after a death defying scene. Sure, kissing is what they do next."
Busy-Appearance-6077
Makes no Sense
"Having a main character whose job/income level does not match their home or lifestyle at all."
Stellathewizard
"I was about to say that Charlie’s shi**y apartment in 'It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia' is the one exception to that rule I can think of. But oddly enough his roommate, Frank, is a millionaire."
FlowRiderBob
"Supposedly when they started making Big Bang Theory they tried putting them in a realistic apartment, and it made it really depressing."
Hrothen
WTF?!
"Adapting stuff into live-action movies when they should really be animated. Examples include upcoming Mega Man, Pac-Man and Minecraft movies which are ALL set to be live-action."
TheChainLink2
"I had no idea that any of these movies were in the works. Pac-Man will be half CGI, NO doubt. Going the Sonic route. Unless they literally just have it as an inspiration, and it's just a guy in yellow running away from ghosts in a labyrinth."
"Minecraft? Well, everyone will watch it, so I'm sure they don't care if it's good. But it's clearly going to focus on Steve building a nether portal and trying to kill a f**king dragon. Mega-Man? Yeah, I can see that working live action. Oh wait, it's a Netflix Original? Yeah, no. That's going to be absolute trash."
Maxtrix07
ID please?
Beverly Hills 90210 90S GIFGiphy"Casting 35 year olds as high schoolers."
StaircaseRailing
"Can we add casting 16-18 year olds to play 11 year olds?! Priah Ferguson was 16 when she played 11 year old Erica Sinclair in Stranger Things season 4. WTH!?"
thatswhatthekidssay
Lord Hollywood has a lot of work to do!
What would you add to this list? Let us know in the comments.
People Break Down Which Things Have Progressively Gotten Worse Over Time
Time is not always a friend.
It can systematically destroy everything.
Or is that just humans abusing time?
Everything does degrade naturally...
RedditorBoring-Cauliflowerwanted to talk about the deterioration of life in general.
"What has consistently been getting shi**ier?"
Life in general. Life has gotten worse. Not to be a downer. What happened?
Falling Apart
Sunny Day Help GIFGiphy"My health as I get older. People aren’t kidding when they say 'I turned X age and started falling apart' it actually happens."
BionicYeti
Stop Sharing
"Social media."
Alex-J_Mercer
"Yeah it used to be all about sharing stuff with your friends. Now it’s all about trying to keep your eyes on it as long as possible so they can show you more ads. The social networks that are about sharing stuff and the actual content either get acquired or die."
JiveMasterT
“softness”
"T-shirts. It used to be that you would get a t-shirt and it would last you literally decades. Almost more importantly in my opinion, the shirt also had some 'structure' and shape to it. Now t-shirts are thin, flimsy, and formless. I feel like I’m wearing an undershirt or a pajamas shirt."
"I should note that around the time t-shirts got sh*ttier, all the t-shirt brands started advertising 'THIS IS THE SOFTEST T-SHIRT EVER.'"
"I’m 99% sure the whole 'softness' marketing was to distract customers from the fact that the fabric got thinner and cheaper. Because although the flimsy fabric is legitimately very soft, 'this shirt is not soft enough' was never a complaint I had with old t-shirts."
redditor1983
Company XYZ
"Advertisements. Not only the quality of advertisements, but frequency has skyrocketed. For example, when you watch a basketball game, these MFs put an ad in between free throw attempts. Everything is presented by Company XYZ, everything has some sort of advertisement connected to it, and it is infuriating."
will_bartnik
Bad Idea
Fast Food GIF by jjjjjohnGiphy"Fast food. It was always bad for you, but now it doesn't taste as good either, and is more expensive, on top of being bad for you."
THE_GR8_MIKE
Remember when Burger King was only like a dollar? What happened?
Downgrade
Moving Season 3 GIF by VidaGiphy"The quality of furniture. Unless you want to spend $10k, you cant really get something that will last 50+ years."
epidemica
Boo!
"Halloween Decorations. Used to be able to buy metal gates, concrete/plaster tombstones, and many other creative decorations that would last you several years - maybe even decades. Now all you can get are flimsy styrofoam and plastic tombstones meant to last only one Halloween (looking at you, Spirit Halloween)."
crappymailm
Try to buy...
"Housing costs."
Xixiiiiiii
"It's ridiculous. Our rent keeps going up, so my husband just said 'Screw it, let's move in with my dad for a year or so to save.' Thankfully he was cool with it, because we seriously never have any extra to save! I don't know how people without help can do it. Rent is so expensive it's impossible to save the money needed to buy a house!"
Myingenioususername
“the old days”
"Life and perception. As i get older and learn more I consistently yearn for 'the old days' but I’m not actually yearning for old days… I’m merely wishing I could go back to when I didn’t know anything about how life and the world actually operates. Youthful perception is usually more optimistic."
S0n0fthunder
Mainstream Down
Found Footage Video GIF by Eternal FamilyGiphy"Mainstream network television programing."
Just_Credit_4913
"I swear to God, at work, most of the crap on TV is either a mediocre drama show about a government organization or firefighters, cringe a** news stations like Inside Edition, game shows or generic 'talk' shows that feel more like advertisements."
TheDragonborn117
Oh, the good ole days. What happened?
When it comes to naming children, there are all kinds of different approaches.
Some parents like to honor the legacy of a late relative, while there are those who prefer naming their baby after a revered fictional character–"Luke" (Skywalker) being one of them.
But let's be honest. Baby naming can get way out of hand, and it's the child who becomes a victim by having to live with a name they might get teased for...like "Blanket."
Curious to hear examples of what some of those might be, Redditor Sarah_Trekkie asked:
"What are some of the craziest baby names you’ve personally been witness to?"
Pity these children with these unfortunate names.
The Three Hs
"Well they weren't babies, but at the summer camp where I worked this summer. 3 brothers: Honor, Heritage, and believe it or not, Henceforth. I felt a little bad for those kids."
– fabook
It's Satisfying
"The manager at a shop near me is named Goodenough."
– Pagan-za
In Case You Missed It A Second Time
"Coworker grew up with a girl named Kelly Kelly Kelly."
– Jimbo---
Metal Head
"Jam Metallica for a baby girl."
– wordofmouthrevisited
Drugs and babies just shouldn't mix.
Pharma Baby
"I work in child welfare and it’s actually more common than you would think for someone to name their child after a drug or strand of drug they were using at the time. So with that information, MF Pitbull and Knucklehead were the two that I saw that were pretty bad. Another sad fact is when a child is immediately removed from a family (they have already been proven not to be fit parents) they’ll give them the name Baby Boy/Girl or Infant until they’re adopted."
"Edit: at the time = time of conception"
"Edit edit: 'they' as in the nursing staff, the birth parents often aren’t coherent enough or don’t care to give a name."
– spacecowboy203
Out With The Old In With The New
"I summer nannied for two kids, siblings who had been adopted by a wonderful woman who immediately changed their given names, which were Crystal and Rocky."
"Edited to add that both babies were born addicted to meth. Forgot that little nugget."
– checkitbec
It gets worse.
Going By A Gender
"Boy. True story."
– _mybloodyvalentine
What A Pair
"Noodles and papoose."
"I heard these 2 magical names uttered in a single sentence by a woman. 'Noodles! Put papoose down!'"
– MrScribz
Fantasy Household
"Thunderbird, Winter Star, Rainbow, Baby Girl."
"Culturally not that weird, but day to day life outside of the Rez, strong names to live with."
– ghastlyglittering
How Super
"I met a young man named Jor-El."
"Yes, as in Jor-El, father of Kal-El who became Superman on Earth."
– CowboySpencer
Copy That?
"Xerox."
– hand-pic-appreciator
"Were they a clone?"
– jonsconspiracy
"Nah, just a carbon copy."
– iamevilcupcake
The Pressure Is On
"I was at the park with my nephew last week and a woman started calling for her son to get off the swings. His name was Messiah. That seems like a lot to live up to!"
– BatmansKhaleesi
I would have to say one of the craziest names I've heard of was Otis Payne.
The names individually are actually pretty cool, but when you slap them together and say the full name, well, I can only imagine the amount of jokes this person had to endure.
He probably lost track of the number of times they saw someone doubling over in fake distress–clenching at a problematic part of their body–and saying his full name in jest.
We get it, we get it, "Oh this pain!"
Poor guy...
With so many streaming platforms and too many recommendations to watch your friends' favorite shows, how do you prioritize what shows to watch?
Those who can afford to sit in front of the TV all day–because that is the commitment it takes to start making a dent in your viewing playlist–must choose wisely in determining which shows to start binging.
If a show fails to grab your attention from the get go, you might be prone to ditch it and go on to the next one on the list.
The risk of course is you might be missing out on something that is worth sitting through the slow-burn, exposition-y episodes of a show that is trying to establish itself at the beginning but becomes wildly rewarding towards the end.
But who has time for all that?
Apparently, there were many TV show viewers whose patience ran thin.
To find out what shows strangers online thought was not worth their time, Redditor itsamu asked:
"What TV series isn't worth finishing?"
You would think fantasy and action shows can sustain your attention, but they're not all created the same.
Not Having The Time For This One
"Once upon a time. It literally repeats the entire first season’s plot."
– ShamrockMilk
The Irony
"The Flash."
– XxMysteriousManXx
"I'm the fastest man alive. Except for the main villain of this season. And the random guy I'm chasing who escaped around the corner of the building, despite the fact I can search an entire square mile in under a minute. Nah, he's gone, no need to check."
– no1ofconsequencedied
One Strong Season
"Heroes. Watch the first season, and then stop."
– jodefo8605
Can't Kill What's Already Dead
"The walking dead, gave up a while ago. Don't even know if it has finished or not yet."
– nanermaner
The Outlook Was Already...
"Grimm. Started off so good, just got worse and worse and worse."
– j4ck_0f_bl4des
Getting Straight To The Point
"Arrow. It ends at season 2, ya hear me? SEASON TWO!"
Many Redditors recommended cutting the length of a TV season by half.
Wrap It Up
"We really should have more limited series. Some shows have premises that are good for a season or two that get ruined by dragging it out for multiple seasons."
– serefina
The Brits Get It
"Watch more British shows. Fewer episodes generally so they don’t as often run out of ideas or go off the rails. Fleabag for example, two perfect seasons and done."
– BrockStar92
Even people who enjoy the pacing of dramas found some in the genre quite tedious.
That Final Season
"House of cards. Just stop watching on the last episode of the penultimate season and pretend the last one is still in the works. The last season is insulting on so many levels."
– Strange-Ad8829
You Gotta Be Toking
"Weeds. Good for the first three seasons or so. Really f'king comes off the rails after that."
– tobor32779
They May Have A Case Here
"Suits. It becomes very repetitive after a while."
– darkspark1224
"Worst Finale Ever"
"The last couple seasons of Castle were garbage. The finale was the worst finale in the history of finales. Yes even worst than GoT and HIMYM. Such a disgrace for a show that used to be cute, fun and sharply written. I can’t even bring myself to watch marathons when they are on and it was one of my favorite shows when it first started."
– Mental_Worker_1520
I'm probably in the minority here but I had to give up on Game of Thrones by the end of its first season.
I think I was expecting more fantasy and dragons straight away, but as I waited for more action, I found myself losing interest in the characters and patience in keeping track of who was related to whom.
So I put a pin in it and started watching other shows.
When I heard about fans complaining about the letdown of an ending, that was enough for me to remove it from my list permanently.
Hey, to each their own.