Whoa, what an awful day. I took two books and didn’t even get them out of my bag because the phones would not stop ringing. Twelve hours of ringing phones can pretty much discombobulate anyone’s brain. What is worse is the calls were frustrating causing frayed tempers and stressed out coworkers. Here is a brief sample of the calls at the center today:
1. The sobbing woman who called to tell us she was “fine”. When asked what happened to make her cry, she started into those shrill screaming sobs that are about as grating as nails on a chalkboard. Then, when she was back down to normal sobs she’d say “I’m fine”. Of course we sent law to her house even though she was “fine”.
2. The man who called in a small fire starting on the interstate. When asked what mile marker – he asked “what’s a mile marker?”
3. A medical call where I asked the woman if her husband was “clammy” – she said “No, he didn’t eat clams today.” So I rephrased it “does he have cold sweats?” She got very angry and said “I’ve already told you he hasn’t eaten – just what are you implying?”
4. A woman says her boyfriend is suicidal but won’t give out the address “over the phone” so we had to send a deputy to her house to get the address of the suicidal person. The guy lived but that wasn’t the point. We spent quite a lot of time and staff to try to figure out where this guy was because she didn’t think the phones were “safe” to talk on. Ohmygod you can’t imagine how frustrating that call was.
5. A woman asked if her argument with her husband was verbal or physical. She asked “What’s the difference between the two”. When I patiently explained that physical meant any contact such as pushing, grabbing or shoving. She said, and I quote, “No, he just slapped me a few times.”
6. The man who called us to report his car had been broken into last week in Texas. He was on vacation there but waited till he got home to report it – which, of course, we don’t do. You have to report injustices in the jurisdiction it occurred – plain and simple.
7. A woman locked her keys in the car with her son sleeping inside. She wanted us to come and open it because she didn’t want to wake him. The son was 9 years old – I mean, come on people. Wake the kid up and leave us alone.
8. A man called because he had just completed his yard work when a palm prong fell off his palm tree on to the grass. He wanted to know what he would have to do to keep that from happening again.
9. Several people throughout the day called 911 to ask what the non-emergency number was.
10. A woman called in that her husband was trying to run her over with his wheelchair. She was screaming – hung up on us several times saying she wasn’t going to answer our f#%$ing questions. Deputies arrived to find the husband wasn’t even home. When they said they would do nothing to the absent husband, the woman called in six more times requesting better deputies. We send a sergeant out to talk to her about her cussing and abusing call takers.
11. Man called in that the house next to him was known for it’s drug traffic – he said there were just too many cars going up and down the street. How did he know they were dealing in drugs – “because that is where I go to buy crack”.
12. A woman woke up in a house not knowing where she was, who she was or how she got there. She wanted us to send deputies over right away. When asked where exactly we were suppose to send them, she got angry. She walked out into the street and asked “can you see me now?” when told we had no way of “seeing” her just because she walked out of a house she said “I’ll describe some of the cars on the street then.” Like how in the hell is that going to help us find her?
She called in several times but we never did find her. We sent deputies out to different streets we thought it might be but they couldn’t locate her. She admitted she had taken crack cocaine…possibly X…possibly both crack and X. It was no wonder she had no idea where she was.
There are many others I could add on such as a medical call where the woman said her husband “felt ill” but when asked if he was conscious and breathing she said “no”. Now, wouldn’t that be the first thing a person said? “Ohmygod my husband is unconscious on the floor and not breathing” – not “felt ill”.
Oh, and I can’t forget the man who was angry that a group of juveniles were playing soccer on a basketball court. Why the nerve of them! It wasn’t like he wanted to use the court – he just found it irritating.
Also had a woman call because her neighbor was staring at her and she thought it was rude. Unfortunately people, rude is not illegal.
I could go on and on and on but I won’t. I’m glad this night is behind me and hope against hope that tomorrow is much easier on the brain.
I never suspected that I would have to learn how to live – that there were specific disciplines and ways of seeing the world I had to master before I could awaken to a simple happy, uncomplicated life. –Dan Millman
