In the middle a night shift, a call came in about an address well known to us. The occupant had a history of making hoax/timewasting/abusive calls whilst intoxicated; on several occasions he had been abusive to the ambulance crew and ended up in the care of the police. This time appears to be no different — the call taker received a stream of abusive, and the only information the caller would give her was the address and that “someone is f***ing dead”.
Up on dispatch, we were fully expecting another hoax call, but of course, statements like that can’t be ignored and so we dispatched a nee naw, getting it to wait around the corner from the address until it had a nice police car to join in. Police and ambulance went to the door of the flat, knocked repeatedly and got no answer. On ringing back the originating mobile, there was no answer — it just rang and rang. So the police decided to kick down the door of the flat (hoaxers beware — they will do this!) and inside they found evidence that there had been some kind of incident — medications and bodily fluids all over the floor. There was, however, absolutely no dead bodies whatsoever, neither was there any sign of the occupant.
Wondering if the patient had been taken to the nearby hospital by other means, the ambulance crew got us to ring their A+E department and check their records.
“James Smith?” said the nurse. “Let’s see — last admission on November 10th and… oh! He died on November 22nd!”
So, for once, the call was, strictly speaking, factually correct — it was just that the rather important detail of the date and place of the erstwhile hoax maker had been omitted.
We never worked out who called the ambulance, or exactly what it was he expected us to do.
December 6th, 2005 at 10:44 pm
sounds like a normal sat night then with the frequent flyers.
December 7th, 2005 at 12:09 am
i wonder if doctor who’s telephone is playing up again
December 7th, 2005 at 1:01 am
what the world? jk
December 7th, 2005 at 3:51 am
Very weird & scary. Makes one wonder what the cirumstances of the occupant’s death were & whether the caller was involved.
December 7th, 2005 at 4:25 am
Good story, I liked it!
December 7th, 2005 at 11:03 am
Do you think it could have been James Smith himself bidding you a final farewell?
December 7th, 2005 at 12:21 pm
Scary stuff you guys have to deal with! Loved the story.
The Driving Instructor
December 7th, 2005 at 6:05 pm
Gingermick — it did cross my mind! The caller certainly had all the manners of the deceased man. I’ve never heard of ghosts using telephones before, though.
December 8th, 2005 at 9:59 am
Perhaps it was something one of his mates had promised to do to honor his memory… one for the road!
December 15th, 2005 at 5:17 pm
First ambulance call I ever made was someone on IRC who was diabetic, hadn’t eaten all day and did their party-stopping impression of going into hypoglycaemic shock. I only knew their home phone number and first name, but that was enough for the dispatcher to trace them. I believe their door was in fact kicked down as well, my thought being “if they’re dramatising, they deserve it”
As it happened they weren’t and the call was just the right thing 
December 15th, 2005 at 5:34 pm
Yeah, I’ve had a few calls like that. British Telecom can give us the address associated with any phone number. I bet there have been a few occasions when someone’s been putting it on for attention and ended up saddled with a broken door!