I have been a 911 dispatcher for  24 years come July 1st and in those 24 years, I’ve dealt with most every type of call…911 Where is your emergency….Yes, I just shot my wife; 911 Where is your emergency….This is the ******* State Savings Bank and we have been robbed; 911 Where is your emergency…I think my wife is gone;  911 Where is your emergency…I just saw a plane go down….even when you have worked all of these cases, each scenario is different so you really can’t say you have worked everything because everything is different.

Case in point…the unnerving of the 911 dispatcher…My partner left at 0200 and she had dispatched a 10 person brawl just off the square before she left…this led to criminal mischief to a building – they went thru the front door, and dumb ass drunks at the local motel who low and behold had been involved in the brawl .. so I’m basically busy… in the middle of this I received an incomplete 911 cell call, then a second incomplete 911 cell call – the second one I called back…I was a little irritable…okay, I was downright irritated that his person’s cell phone – probably in a pocket or purse was calling 911…I asked her to please lock her keys and she said she couldn’t and I asked her why and she said because she didn’t have her phone then we were disconnected…now I”m just generally pissed off.  By the way…this type of things happens very frequently – at least once a shift…before I had time to think, her cell phone dialed 911 again and hung up…so I had a head of steam built up and called her back.  She started in with..Hi Mom, of course I called you…are you sleeping…ya, I’m headed to Des Moines – so I realized that something was going on here..I played along and was able to get lots of information out of her because she was pretending to talk to her mom and I was asking the questions….keep in mind, she sounded like my daughter’s best friend and this was quite unnerving and I said…ARE YOU BEING HELD AGAINST YOUR WILL…she said YES…This girl was bright enough to be able to work things into the conversation with me “the mother” that I could figure out where she was … could get her off the highway – she said…mom, does the Caseys in ##### take a credit card because I’m on a quarter tank and I have to go to the bathroom.

We got her off the highway..an officer was waiting and made the traffic stop.  The 4 males in the vehicle were taken out of the vehicle – one is in jail facing a healthy charge and she is okay.  I’m not really sure how the whole thing happened but after interviews with these dirt bags, the outcome was not going to be good.  This little thing (in her 20’s) had the presence of mind to play the game that saved her life.

I talked to her again about 2 hours later while she was filling out statements.  I HAD to talk to her.  I think she was just happy to be alive and okay…she thanked me for understanding what she was trying to do and said “you saved my life”.  That is priceless.