It was a bright Monday morning, after a well-cherished weekend. I was making the way out of my comforter, while the birds whistled in tune of the dawn. Half an hour later, I was out in the hall, enjoying several scoops of cereals. I then heard the sound ‘Tik Tik’ from my door. As I opened the door, there were two cops standing on either side of the door, in a vigilant position. One of them asked, “Are you having any problem today, Sir?” I just stepped out of the little surprise that knocked my door in the morning and replied “No”. He inquired again politely to make sure that everything was alright. The cops then left the place, after I was made aware the reason for their arrival.
Few minutes later as I started my way out to the office, I observed that the cops were still present and were watchful outside my apartment complex. As I recollected the reason for their visit – it was my roomie who was trying to call India that morning, while in the process, he dialed ‘911’ (Police Control Room / USA) instead of ‘91’ which is the international telephone code for India. He however hung up the phone after he realized the mistake. He having called from the landline number and having hung up the phone suddenly, the police were able to trace the call back to our address and they arrived to make sure that there was no problem.
If you accidentally dial 911, do not hang up immediately. Please talk to the call operator and mention that it was an accident. Once the police control room receives a hang up call and if they can not verify by phone that everything is okay, they will usually follow up by dispatching officer(s) to make sure everything is alright. This adds to more resources that can instead be used at some other place where situation demands the most. I too, at that time, didn’t realize the prominence of this issue.
One might be wondering what my roomie, who made the call, was doing when the police arrived! He was in his room, delightful in his talk back home :)
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