Funny Emergency 911 Calls

I have high respect for people to work as 911 dispatchers.  Having worked with them on my job, thankfully not regularly, I know that they have high-stress jobs.  Usually, a 911 caller is placing the call to report an emergency.  The dispatcher has to not only calm the caller down but also has to know how to relay information to the caller so that they can start the process of solving the problem.  Sometimes, the dispatcher is the emergency caller's only lifeline.

On occasion, the 911 dispatcher also gets some of the most bizarre calls that aren't as stressful to handle as they are humorous.  Some people lose their senses in stressful situations and call 911 when the situation really doesn't warrant a response from emergency crews.  Read on for some of these funny incidences reported by 911 dispatchers over the years...

The Western Bacon Cheeseburger

In September, 2008, a woman called 911 to complain about her order from Burger King. She had ordered a Western Bacon Burger and the drive-through personnel apparently gave her the wrong kind of burger. The woman demands that they make her the right burger and refused to leave or move her car out of the drive-through line. Often times, when an order causes a delay, fast food personnel will ask the patron to scoot their cars up to park outside the door so others can get through. This lady refused to move her car and demanded the right burger.

The Burger King manager finally offered to give this distraught lady her money back which was refused. The lady was adamant to get her burger the way she wanted. Upset, the lady called the police for help and demanded that they send out officers to help her demand her burger. The dispatcher tried to explain to the lady that this was not a criminal act on the Burger King employee's part and that she should just calmly talk to the manager to solve the problem.

A Naked, Homeless Man

In the fall of 2010, the Beaverton, OR police received a 911 call from a man who asked for help getting out of a hotel hot tub. He was a homeless man who had been creating ruckus in the hotel earlier. In fact, other hotel patrons had called 911 to report him. He ended up calling 911 on himself and claimed to need help getting out of the tub because he didn't have any towels and was therefore stuck in the tub. When the 911 dispatcher asked if he needed any medical attention, the man declined, but stated that he would appreciate some hot chocolate and a hug. Needless to say, this man needed more than this when police finally arrested him for disturbing the peace among other charges.

A Messy Room

In 2009, an Ohio man called 911 because his 28 year-old son had a messy room. The older gentleman was fed up when his son threw a plate of food across the room. The son lives in the basement of the house owned by the 911 caller. The father admitted that his reaction to call 911 was extreme and didn't press charges on his own blood.

McDonald's Chicken McNuggets Shortage

A woman placed a 911 call to complain about her local McDonald's running out of Chicken McNuggets.  The restaurant just happened to run out of the little pieces of chicken when this woman placed her order.  The woman paid for her order so the fast food chain's employee offered to give her a different kind of food.  When the woman kicked up a fuss, the employee offered her even more food, only to be refused.  The irate woman proceeded to call 911 to report the fact that she should have been told before paying for the order that they were out of McNuggets.  She called to file the complaint since she didn't get the food that she ordered.

Police High On Brownies

A police officer called 911 to get some help.  He had stolen some marijuana from an arrest and took the batch home to bake some brownies.  After consuming the brownies with his wife, the officer feared there might have been something else in the pot that made him feel very sick.  He claimed his wife was laying on the living room floor.  She also apparently takes Vicodin from the pain she still felt from a car accident.  This police officer ended up having to turn himself in for consuming an illegal substance.

Whether the 911 calls are real or staged, I'm sure there are many instances when dispatchers receive very bizarre calls.  Without a doubt, I would gather that many of the calls classified as unfounded are similar to the ones I found for this hub.  If anything else, it provides us all with a good chuckle.