Hoaxes
I don’t know if it’s the spring air making people mischievous, but the Nee Naw Service has been receiving a significantly higher than normal number of hoax calls. Usually these are not much of a problem for us — there are fewer than you might imagine, and most are from curious children who just want to see what happens when you call 999. Usually they give a highly improbable reason for wanting the ambulance (”my little brother just exploded!” “a plane has crashed in my garden!”) and a quick ringback to the number usually uncovers the hoax and ensures that the culprit’s pocket money is stopped for a month. One day last week, though, I took no less than four hoaxes in one day. All were made by children or young teenagers. The first claimed his wife was in labour, the second that his uncle was dead, the third that his dad has broken his leg and the fourth that she had found an abandoned hypothermic child in the street. All four were instantly recognisable to me as hoaxes (children are terrible liars, you can almost hear their brains ticking over trying to provide suitable answers for the questions), yet we had to send ambulances to all four, meaning each ambulance was tied up for about fifteen minutes. That’s a total of an hour of lost ambulance time, while people in desperate need of help had to wait.
Why did we have to send to these calls when we knew from the outset that they were hoaxes? Well, if we don’t, things like this end up happening. An American 911 call taker classed a genuine call as a hoax, refused to send, and as a result, a woman died. Now, while I don’t condone what that call taker did, I do understand it. The temptation to “save” the ambulance for those who really need it is overwhelming; the frustration of sending it out to a hoax when you can see that you have an old lady with a broken hip and a child with an asthma attack waiting is huge. What if those people died while the ambulance was dealing with the hoax?
So, please, if you have children, teach them that making hoax calls to the emergency services is not funny.
on April 16th, 2006 at 4:19 pm
I think the increase is possibly attributed to the school holidays and the poor weather (making messing about in the street a less attractive option)
Excellent blog btw,
Tom
on April 16th, 2006 at 4:21 pm
Oh yeah, I forgot the schools were out. Not getting any holidays myself, I forget that other people have them.
on April 16th, 2006 at 6:35 pm
wow, that’s pretty terrible. It’s typical though, the one time you don’t follow protocol something bad happens. Great blog.
on April 16th, 2006 at 10:07 pm
That’s awful. If you remain on the line with them, can you even ask them pointed questions or make statements along the lines of “If this is a hoax, please be aware that you’re preventing an ambulance reaching an old lady with a broken hip?” Presumably not, sigh.
on April 16th, 2006 at 10:25 pm
You’re not allowed to accuse someone outright of making a hoax, but you can try to catch them out. I try to throw in a couple of difficult questions (after asking all the real ones and giving the necessary instructions, just in case), or suggest that the police need to come too, which usually makes the child panic and hang up the phone. You can then call back, and an adult will hear it ringing and tell you that the child was “just playing”. Doesn’t always work, though, especially if the little blighters are calling from phone boxes.
on April 17th, 2006 at 9:38 am
Yes, children, calling ambulances out unnecessarily is neither funny nor clever and, you will find, is hugely disappointing. A couple of nonplussed herberts wandering about by a phonebox scratching their heads can hardly be considered first-class entertainment in this day and age, can it? Now if you ask for the Fire Brigade . . .
on April 17th, 2006 at 10:26 am
[…] Nee Naw […]
on April 18th, 2006 at 5:57 am
We get at least 20-30 a shift (12 hours) from kids, adults, etc. This dispatcher in Detroit was dead wrong (no pun intended) for not sending someone. At least a cop if she was unsure, but I understand her frustrations. What I find most distasteful about this tragedy is the way the media is preying on her and this child. This has become an over-inflated cause-celeb and during National Telecommunicator Week. For some reason we tend to get more hoax/hangup calls here in the States than you do. Probably because everyone from age 2 up has access to a cell phone.
on April 18th, 2006 at 6:27 am
The tragedy of the situation is a wake-up call to everyone who works in a call-taking/dispatching center. This is what Could happen. There’s always calls where you don’t want to send anyone, you think it’s bs, but what I was taught in training is you “cover your ass”. And you do.
I took a call this last weekend of someone jumping off a bridge (we just had a suicidal party jump from the same bridge, and die). I thought it was a hoax, and it turned out to be a hoax, but it didn’t stop everyone from having to respond. City, county, and state deputies from two different counties, rescue, and the Coast Guard. Which is why I think everyone that makes a prank call, whether or not it’s a child, should be charged a fee. Especially if the response, like this last one, uses a large amount of resources. Wastes so much money.
Dispatchers are expected to make a hundred judgement calls, in split seconds, for hours on ends. And we’re human. We make mistakes and sometimes those mistakes have bigger consequences. I can’t imagine how that dispatcher from Detriot feels, but feeding it to the media, exploiting the five year old, and making it an ever bigger deal by keeping it in the headlines, just seems so wrong to me. Don’t get me wrong, what she did was wrong, she should’ve sent someone right away, but I feel they’re making a painful situation worse, and I’m not seeing any good that can come out of it.
on April 18th, 2006 at 8:44 am
Pete said Dispatchers are expected to make a hundred judgement calls, in split seconds, for hours on ends.
Yes, the gutter press and even the more sensible media often fail to mention that.
on April 18th, 2006 at 12:58 pm
Steve wrote:
“Now if you ask for the Fire Brigade . . .”
… you can nick all their equipment whilst they are running around trying to find the fire and then use it to steal mopeds, bikes and cars. Was happening a lot last year round us.
on April 18th, 2006 at 8:19 pm
I’ve known several people (not children!) who do that here in Kuwait. They get their jollys out of it. I suppose it stems from a general disregard for the value of a human life. Ambulances here gets absolutely no respect on the road. I’ve seen several frustrated drivers who are unable to reach their destinations quickly because other drivers refuse to clear the way for them. I always wonder how many lives are lost because of these people and how they’ll feel if they’re the ones whose lives are hanging in the balance.
on April 19th, 2006 at 9:01 am
I feel your frustration!
I had a call a few weeks ago from a small city when a lady apparently had chest pain and was losing conciousness. So we dispatched and ambulance, and as i went throught the ProQA format i could tell that the answers were getting dodgey and people in the background didnt sound at all worried, it sounded like they were having a giggle at the telly. Just before i ended the call i asked to speak to someone else who was there and shot them a few questions to try catch them out. They must have been ready for it and were able to give me the same information as the first informant. So thinking i was wrong and that it was an actual truthful Emergency call i asked for the patients name, to which i recieved a very false name!
I advised the dispatcher that we might want to send the crew with a caution to safety. 10mins later the crew arrived to a house where no one wanted an ambulance. So i rang back our informants to ensure i had the right address to which they all giggled and said yes. I informed them that we had an ambulance outside the premises and they needed to make themselves visable, to which they laughed again. I then informed them that it was a $2000 fine and we have the phone disconnected and that i was ringing the phone company to have the mobile phone disconnected (white lie but we hope it stops them). To which i received stunned silence. Then i disconnected the call.
Right after the call i recieved a job from the police after taking details of the call i asked him what they do about hoax callers. He took the number and said they would ring and make a bit of trouble. Around 20mins later he rang back and informed me that he had infact disconnected the cell phone and a squad car was on the way to bang them up in a cell for the night and they would be appearing in court for wasting emergency service time and would no doubt recieve a heafty fine!
Biggest pain in the bum is the prepaid cellphones i feel. People turn up buy a cellphone and get a sim card (mobile number) and dont have to give any kind of details in return! Then they ring waste our time, the number is disconnected, so they go out spend another $30 and do it all again!
I have had people actually pretending to do CPR and doing a damn good job of it i must add! The victims will always be the innocent!
on April 19th, 2006 at 1:05 pm
this is all your fault, but in your honour: http://www.flickr.com/photos/44734266@N00/130941498/
on April 20th, 2006 at 10:33 pm
The last hoax call I had was kids messing around, luckily they didn’t get round to passing an address as we have to attend then. They cleared and I rang the mobile number back. At first they just hung up when I said who I was. So I rang back. And again. And again, this time saying that I will continue to ring back until they listen to what I have to tell them. They then stayed on the line. I read them the riot act stating that we were getting a Police Officer to attend exactly where they were and having their phone disconnected. They then started to apologise but by this time I had my arse in my hands as I really get annoyed with these sorts of calls, so I continued to inform them what their actions could have resulted in - what if it was your parents in a car accident and the fire engine looking for a made up incident was the nearest etc. All of a sudden my supervisor caught my attention made a comment about me ‘going over the top a tad’. I finished the call with a smug grin. Then turned to my supervisor and started on him - what if it was his house that was on fire? It really really annoys me. I hate them pesky kids!!
on April 21st, 2006 at 8:13 pm
I knew someone at school whose parents were threatened with criminal prosecution because she had made repeated hoax calls to the fire brigade. I bet she didn’t try THAT little stunt again.
Just out of interest, how old was the caller who claimed his wife was in labour? A teenager who might plausibly have been near enough the legal age to marry, or a small child obviously playing up?
on April 21st, 2006 at 10:03 pm
He sounded about twelve, but you can never be too sure. I’ve thought genuine callers with squeaky voices were children before, and asked if there was an adult there, only to be told huffily “I’m twenty-three!” Oops!
on April 23rd, 2006 at 1:50 pm
Tougher penalties needed. These people make me sick. Find out where they are calling from. If it is a hoax call, the parents should be fined 500 quid and taken to court if they don’t pay. That will ensure the child gets one hell of a beating and doesn’t do it again. Then when they need the ambulance because the child has a broken arm from the thrashing they just received they won’t have a problem getting one. The 500 quid could go towards supporting the paramedics who get attacked on a daily basis by all the thugs on the streets of Britain. We need tougher laws to deal with this scum.
on April 24th, 2006 at 12:47 pm
Slightly different aspect here… I had two friends killed when a firecrew did a red light on the way to a fire at a local hotel and hit their car. Hoax call from a 12 year old. No charges, she was too young to be prosecuted.
on April 28th, 2006 at 4:04 pm
My son dialled 999 when he was 3 years old. I think it was just pure chance but as soon as he realised there was someone talking to him he started chatting back. Luckily my Dad realised he was talking to someone, apologised and disconnected.
I’d never seen my Dad react to his Grandson so mad as he was. My sons hair almost stood on end he shouted so loud!
The phone line was dead for about an hour afterwards, but he’s never played with the phone again since!
on April 30th, 2006 at 10:17 am
I agree with Vegas, there should be tougher penalties. Its such a shame should a hoax call result in the death of another patient who may have been saved had the ambulance come in time.
on May 15th, 2006 at 4:15 pm
i was pretty angry about reading this stuff about hoaxes,ok nearestive got to being emergency services was that i used to be a caretaker,why dont the police,ambulance and fire get together over it,of course you cant wait for management to do it,[to busy creating a fresh new work practise] or politicians, but just down the pub or somthing.by the way my gurly was a samaritan, and even they get pervs and jesters,so how sick is that
on September 19th, 2006 at 6:57 pm
haww my gosh! reading this has made me feel soooo guilty… *blushes* when i was in primary school aged 5 or 6, they just taught us about how to dial 999 if something went wrong…
Armed with this new piece of information, i thought i’d practice… i dialed the number and it rang and i heard a woman speak… and i suddenly realised that i couldn’t just say “i was only practising, if i ever needed it” so i just said “woops, sorry” and hung up…
The lady called back, and i panicked and took the phone plug out of the socket…
When my dad came into the room, he put the phone line back in and received a call, i walked out of the room…
And then, as if that experience didn’t put me off… When my dad got a new mobile phone (when hardly anyone had one) he joked and said it was a police phone… I didn’t beleive him, and so i, again, dialed 999… again, i thought “what am i meant to say!?!?!?!?” and hung up… and they kept calling and calling and calling… I can’t remember what happened after, but i obviously repressed the memory…
so… for those times when i was being a bit “duh” and not thinking… i’m reaaaaaaalllllly sowwwwwwwie…
i soooo didn’t mean to disrupt anything!!!
oh and for all those peoples above 11… that’s just horrible! cause they know what they’re doing!!!
I didn’t realise that my actions would lead to horribleness….
on November 12th, 2006 at 3:39 pm
I volunteer at a helpline. We get hoax calls a lot, from guys who just want to get off on our voices/making us say dirty words/pushing our boundaries. It makes me so angry that they’re wasting our time (and making us volunteers feel crap and sexually manipulated, because some of them are pretty clever about it).
No lives lost (most likely…) but dear Lord, what is it with people who want to take advantage like this?