This Guy Must Be Dying....

Alrighty, since I'm on my days off, here's one from several years ago.

This was back when I was working night shifts. Pretty late at night if I recall, I get the 911 call and right off the bat, I hear very loud moaning, mixed with some wailing and then occasional grunting. I immediately start thinking the worst and try to get the guy (sounded like a guy) to say something, anything. The only response I get is more grunting and wailing. I decide at this point I've got someone who's hurt pretty bad, still don't know why, but lots of things are running through my head. I'm thinking heart attack, or stroke, or worse, this guy could be the victim of some type of vicious attack in the night. Anyways, I've already started everyone, cops, ambulance, fire truck and I'm scared this is going to make the news the next day. Then, all of a sudden, amidst the groaning and moaning, I hear a woman saying, "Honey, what are you doing? You know they can't understand you! Then she grabs the phone and asks who's there. I immediately tell her this is 911 and demand to know what's going on. Then she tells me he's her son who lives with her.... and he's deaf. Not only can he not hear anything I'm saying, he can't talk at all, can only sign. Apparently they had just been in an argument and he got so ticked off at her he decided to call the cops. Only problem was once he made the call, all he could do was sit there and moan and wail at me.

Anyways, I cancelled the army of lights and sirens headed their way. Once the other dispatchers heard why, everyone was laughin there butts off. We played that recording over and over and over that night before our shift was over.

Just in case your wondering, we have equipment dedicated just to taking calls from the deaf. It's called TDD (telecommunications device for the deaf). Their phones are equipped in a way that they can basically chat with other people on a computer screen with TDD.. We recieve special training just for taking these type calls and they're actually pretty cool. If I recall, this guy had the equipment and could've used it but was pretty drunk and so peeved, he just picked up the phone and commenced to wailing.