I had to call 911 when I thought my 26 year old husband was having a heart attack. It turned out to be pluerisy, but boy, it was scary! His lungs were inflamed and he said it hurt to breathe worse than when had a cracked rib! The EMTs diagnosed it before they even had him in the ambulance, but they still had to take him to the ER to have it confirmed.

I called 911 from an Iowa highway when we were driving late at night and all of a sudden there were cows on the road. Lots of them. I wasn’t even sure that 911 was the right call to make, but I knew I had to tell someone.

What a terrific story prompt. The Time I Called 911.

I’m sure I did it at work, for one of my attorneys, who thought he was having heart problems but was just severely dehydrated (kids, drink water if you commonly run 10 miles a day, not Diet Coke). I don’t think that was the first time, but like JB, I can’t remember other contexts. It must have been for strangers, not loved ones.

I called 911 when I saw a guy crawling into my neighbor’s basement window with a flashlight.
I also called 911 when I saw a man standing on the other side of the railing on a bridge – it looked like he was thinking about jumping. That one had me really upset for days.

I called 911 from a parking lot payphone when I was 25 (THAT was a while ago, obviously) because while I waited for my boyfriend to come out of a liquor store I *swear to god* I thought I witnessed a home invasion in an apartment complex across the street. From afar, it looked like 2 guys with drawn guns kicked in a door and entered an apartment.
Apparently it was nothing. (We had to stay on the line.) I maintain it was some college kids pranking their friends or a drug deal gone bad and no one owned up to it.

I’ve called 911 at least twice that I can think of, once years ago when a car blew a tire on the interstate in front of me and flipped from the inner lane across to the middle of a field on the side of the road. I pulled over, dialed 911 & explained while running toward the upside-down car, only to find myself standing next to the perfectly-fine driver, bitching to whoever SHE was on the phone with that she’d just totaled her car. Phew.
And the second time was just this semester when a student had a grand mal seizure outside my office door. I called the paramedics and waited with him (with a few other witnesses) until they arrived.
Both experiences were terrifying, and I only hope I never have to call for someone closer to me than a stranger, because while I am very calm and in control when it’s someone I don’t know, if I had to call for a loved one, I might very likely lose my shit.

Hi there-
Ok, I’m with you, if you’ve ever called 911 – I don’t think you would forget it – ever. I have 2, or sort of 1.5 – cuz the second was a 911- too late.
1st – I was living in Portland but visiting my college friend in Seattle. On that Sunday night she left for a work trip to Alaska. Her twin sister and I stayed the night in her apartment before going back to Portland on Monday am. Around midnight we heard someone trying to break in – I freaked out completely, totally like an I love Lucy episode, running on the bed in circles – I couldn’t figure out what to do. My friend was useless. Finally, I ran off the bed, out to the phone in the main room of the apartment, jumped under the desk and dialed 911 after turning on every single light in the place. But, when talking to the 911 operator, I just couldn’t speak. I couldn’t tell her Queen Anne and kept saying Capital Hill – even though I meant Queen Anne, and then I didn’t know her address – so I had to find her mail – felt like it took forever. In the end, the burglar didn’t get in, he gave up, and the cops got there fast, and checked it all out, and left. and…. we basically didn’t sleep all night and got the hell out in the am. Turns out the “burglar” came back the next night, stole my friends checkbook and her car – and totally got caught because he paid for a pizza delivery with her check and had it delivered to the same building but to the apartment upstairs. Total idiot. My friend moved the next week.
2nd 911 call… About 8 years ago, I bought a house off Latona in Seattle. My neighbor was a really old guy – who could hardly see or hear. Super nice, but hard to talk, so i never really did talk to him, we just waved. Over the course of a year, I knew his patterns pretty well, when he took out his trash, when he went to bed, etc… because my kitchen window looked down to his kitchen window and outside walkway. One night his outside light was on, and his side door was open.. I wondered what the deal was, and it was bugging me, and it was still on and open when I went to bed. So, all night I tossed and turned and worried about it, but i didn’t go over because i didn’t really feel comfortable and i didn’t really know him other that our initial meeting. But i had this major gut feeling that he was dead. So, the next morning, it was all still the same, so i called 911 on the way to work and told them that I was worried about my neighbor that i didn’t know well, but that he was old and his pattern was usually the same, but now out of whack. So…… they came by while i was at work, and turns out he had had a heart attack while taking out the trash – and he was dead right there on his walkway around to his back yard. Ugh. Kind of sad, but they said he went fast – maybe to make me feel better, since basically he was out in the rain all night alone and dead. Anyway, that was weird but here’s what’s weirder. I told the story at work and a co-worker pipes in “I know that guy! I just had Thanksgiving with him.” Turns out this old guy was a friend of this guys girlfriends family – and her mom was his caretaker or something like that… so…. small world, and a freaky 911 – and yes, i had a teeny little worry that the cops would wonder if I somehow killed the guy – but alas, it wasn’t like tv, they believed me. He just dropped dead of old age.

Anyway, thanks for letting me share… Been following your blog for a while – love your writing and you’re a brave gal for putting it all out there – i admire you! Glad you are happy in Eugene – As a former Oregonian – I love it there!
Thanks, Suzy

I had to call 911 for my mom 3 days after my dad’s funeral when she dislocated her hip (that she had had surgery on 2 months prior).

I got to ride in my own ambulance a month later when I was afraid I was having a heart attack (nope, just an expensive panic attack).

I called 911 16 years ago (before cell phones were common) when I found someone I thought may be dead. He looked peaceful, like he’d fallen asleep in the parking lot and just never woke up. I don’t know what happened.

I called 911 when I saw a couple loudly arguing in a car, in traffic, and he wouldn’t let her exit the car.

I called 911 on Saturday night when I saw what looked like an accident on a major thoroughfare here.

If in doubt, I always always call. I don’t want to be the person who could have called and didn’t.

I don’t recall ever calling 911 for an emergency, in the sense of needing help immediately. We live about 3 minutes (if the light is red) from an emergency room and I think we carted various kids there when they were young.

The only 911 call I remember making was recently, when I was with my 89 year old dad in a hotel room, and he died while we were getting ready to go to breakfast. :-( It was clear that there was nothing to be done, the call was more like “ok now what do I do…”

I’ve called 911 only once for an emergency. My neighbour’s baby was choking and she didn’t have a phone. Very scary!
I’ve called the non-emergency police number many times though…to report noise violation, break and enter, suspicion of domestic dispute, etc.
I’m glad I haven’t had to call 911 often…I feel lucky and blessed about that.

I have called 911 twice when I was in car accidents and once when I witnessed a car accident.

I have a story of calling 911!

It was around midnight and I was making cupcakes for some dumb reason. My husband was working a late second shift and wasn’t home yet, though I was expecting him soon. My two young daughters (then 5 and 6) were asleep in their beds. So I’m standing in my kitchen, working the mixer, when I sense a movement out of the corner of my eye. I turn, fully expecting it to be my husband home from work, but it was some RANDOM MAN standing in my kitchen, smiling at me expectantly.

I drew in a sharp breath, yelled “OH MY GOD” and his face faltered a bit. I yelled “GET OUT OF MY HOUSE,” and he full-on frowned, like that was NOT the reaction he was expecting. “GET OUT! GET OUT RIGHT NOW!” I yelled, and he apologized, turned, and walked out of the door. I followed him the whole way, locked him out, then called my husband and burst into tears. He was like, “CALL THE POLICE!” And so I did. (Why that wasn’t my first inclination, I have no idea.)

The cops showed up, took a look around, walked up and down the cul de sac where I live, and said whoever it was was gone.

But still. It was a loooooong time before I started feeling comfortable home alone again.

Ugh. Creepy dude.

I just called 911 last Sunday, on myself, for a heart attack. Turns out it was just shy of one, with 99% blockage in a coronary artery, but I definitely needed the ambulance. I’ve called for other reasons, but this was the scariest. I couldn’t catch my breath enough to clearly give them my address, and couldn’t hold the phone very well. Much better now with a stent installed.

I’ve only called 911 once, a few years ago. I had gotten up in the middle of the night, like 2:30 in the morning, to get a glass of water (something I never did), and as I was heading back into my room a bright light through the closed blinds of the living room caught my eye, so I peeked outside and there was a fire across the street. A big pile of moving boxes the new neighbors had dumped right next to a telephone pole and a bunch of cars was on fire. I remember thinking, oh my God, what if the telephone pole catches fire (and falls over on my house) and what if the cars explode?? For just being a pile of boxes, the fire was pretty big. So I called 911 and got transferred around to the fire department, and about five minutes later a truck showed up and put the fire out. The telephone pole to this day still has burn marks. I still wonder what caused the fire to begin with.

I called 911 once when I heard a neighbor (at a previous residence) beating their 1 year old child.

Never on purpose. Once, by mistake, when using a calling card whose first three digits were 9-1-1. I accidentally forgot to call the exchange number first, so when I started to put in the code, it went straight to the emergency services. I must have noticed my mistake and hung up before it even rang on my end, but a few minutes later there were cops at the door who inquired very seriously if everything was okay. They took me into another room, even, to make sure it wasn’t a domestic dispute where I was scared to say anything in front of my husband. I felt all inappropriately giggly, ’twas terrible.

Sorry, that wasn’t meant to be anonymous. It was me. I.

I had to call 911 when I locked my toddler in the car- it was parked in our garage on a cool day- thank god!. I had thrown the keys into the front seat because he was playing with them while I was trying to get him in his carseat. After getting him in the carseat I shut the door and as I was coming around the back of the car I heard a click click sound. Apparently he had hit the lock button and when I shut the door it initiated it to lock. I had to run to the neighbors as my cell phone was in the car too. I was so freaked out. The cops had to place a wedge in the door to get a wire in to pull on the handle.

I was in the bathroom at night (at home) when I heard crackling leaves outside the window, like someone was walking out there. My husband peered around the house and saw someone crouching under the bushes, so I called 911. Turned out to be a completely inebriated guy who was searching for a place to pass out. First we got to hear the cops, weapons pulled, yelling “Get on the ground!” to this person–right outside my son’s window. Good times. (The best part was when one of the cops came to the door to point out the guy, listing and weaving on his feet, in handcuffs at the end of our sidewalk, and asked “Are you sure you don’t know him?” Yeah, pretty sure.)

The second time I called was when we witnessed a smashed up car, with the wheel-well bent in grinding against the wheel, driving super slowly down our street while another car full of angry young men tried to get him to pull over. After he did, the guys just started beating the shit out of him. From what I could piece together it seemed that the smashed up car had hit them and drove, very slowly, away. The cops let the guys go, and although the driver was clearly drunk and should also have been arrested, I found the vigilante justice right in front of our house very disturbing.

Yes, we live in an interesting neighborhood.

Well, this seems weird, but I was living at home after grad school, and my father was in a nursing home, so it was just me, my mom, and my grandmother, and one morning I woke up to find my mom panicking because my grandmother had died during the night. I know it was my idea to call 911, but I don’t know which of us actually made the call – weird, huh? I also would think you wouldn’t forget making that call, so maybe it was my mom who did it. Even though my grandmother was not in the best health, we were still shocked when she passed.

I have called them twice. Once by accident, where I promptly learned NOT to hang up once you realize what you did – as evidenced by the police showing up at my door. And once this past summer when I thought my husband was having a heart attack (turned out to be a severe allergy attack) – had to have been one of the scariest moments of my life to date.

First time, I was babysitting.There were three kids, including a baby and I think one of the neighbors kids,I was helping someone in the bathroom (wink wink) and I flipped on the light switch and the light bulb exploded. I saw flames and smoke. Scared me to death, but I managed to get everybody outside and called 911. No fire, no damage, just a fluke. Second time was when our house got struck by lightening. So scary. No one mentioned to my husband and I when we bought the house that because we are on a ridge that tends to happen. Whoops. We had smoke damage and had to replace a lot of appliances but nothing to major. It has almost been 4 years and I still don’t like lightening storms.

I came across a motorcycle accident, I pulled over and a neighbor said they called 911. I helped the guy get out from under his motorcycle, after several minutes with no ambulance and an obvious smell of gasoline I called 911, they said someone was on their way, but it still took a while.

Quite a few years ago, we got new cordless phones, and I was programming them. I programmed “911” in as a speed dial number, and I guess I pressed it to test it, then immediately hung up, not knowing that it records the call even if it doesn’t ring.

Police showed up in about five minutes, and insisted on coming in to be sure that I wasn’t being held hostage.

I felt very stupid, but it was good to know how well it works.

We were downtown on St. Patrick’s Day and came across a kid in his 20s passed out cold on the sidewalk. Everyone just walked past him like is was no big. While I was talking to the 911 operator he slowly got to his feet and started to stagger off. The operator said “STOP HIM, DON’T LET HIM MOVE!” So I had to be all “honey, you need to stay put” and he was so drunk he couldn’t even speak. Then a firetruck roars up onto the sidewalk for this drunk guy, and I worry that I overreacted and did I burden him with the bill for the paramedics?

I called many years ago when a roof beam on our porch fell on my husband’s head. He was conscious but bleeding a lot from a head wound. I was terrified but the operator was super calm and the ambulance arrived about 2 minutes later since we lived right up the street from a fire station. Husband went to the ER and I tell you, they see head injuries right away. Now I know why we ended up waiting 3 hours the other times we went to the ER with much less frightening injuries.

I got home late after yoga one night, and my cat met me at the top of the stairs, and proceeded to act very out of sorts. He kept staring down the hall toward the bedroom, retreating into the kitchen and then craning his neck around the fridge to peek. He would follow me about halfway down the hall, but would NOT go in. I could do nothing to coax him into the room.

So that started to freak me out. I mean, the house was quiet, and nothing had been disturbed, but he had never acted like this before. I got as far as the threshold and flicked on the lights. Tried to get him to follow me in, to no avail.

So I did what any rational person would do: left my husband a voicemail, texted a few friends, grabbed my chef’s knife and tried to put 911 on speed dial.

In doing so, I alerted the cops to the fact that I was, y’know, dialing their number repeatedly, and they called me back. I apologized profusely, and explained how the cat had been acting. “And while I have you on the phone, would you indulge me by staying on the line while I take the cat and a very big knife into the bedroom?”

He did. I did. And promptly burst out laughing.

Because I found a lamp knocked to the floor. My cat wasn’t SCARED, he was GUILTY.

Let’s see…

I called once because my husband and I happened upon the scene of a just-occurred car accident. That day I learned that if there are no injuries, you better be ready to wait for up to over an hour for the cops to show.

I called once on my way home during a snowstorm when I came across a car in the ditch.

I called for myself. My son was 3 months old and my husband was on a business trip. During a 2 AM nursing session, my back started to hurt. I laid my son back down and over the next 15 minutes came to believe I was having a heart attack. I was having 8 out of the 10 heart attack symptoms for women. I called my sister to come and sit with the baby and then I called 911. I got two doses of nitroglycerin, and ambulance ride, an ultrasound, and a diagnosis of an inflammed and full-of-stones gall bladder.

Found a dead guy and had to dial 911

I grew up in a crappy neighborhood with gangs and I called 911 several times since I was about 12…usually for shootings across the street or someone wielding a weapon. Oh, and once for a house fire down the block.

As an adult, my friend dialed 911 for me because I was about to pass out from a temporary, not-serious heart condition that’s now well controlled. Firefighters and EMS picked me up from my own living room and my 3 year old son barely looked up from his ipad. I don’t even know if he remembers that.

One time, At Band Camp… (Seriously this is how this goes!) My best friend and I were roommates in the absolutely wonderful Lodge. As lucky senior girls we had air conditioned hotel rooms on the camp grounds. That’s literally what they were. Hotel rooms, with vanity and shower and tub, and a big air conditioner under the window we kept CRANKED.
My friend was diabetic and maintains it normally no problem. She had packed lots of extra snacks and stuff and the nurse and directors and everyone knew. But one night after practice she didn’t eat a snack before bed. When we woke up the next day, she was very lethargic and slow to respond and would not get out of bed. Drowsy, unfocused.. I tried to get to drink some water as she had run out of her juice boxes.. I tried to get her to eat something, but she really couldn’t get it to swallow. I knew it was her diabetes but I didn’t know just how bad it was. I kept trying for maybe 45 minutes, an hour and then I decide.. Shit ain’t right.. I need the nurse. The nurse was right below us and I went and knocked on her door and told her what was up.

She instructed me to head to the mess hall, where the only land line phone was (Directors and helping parents had cellphones I’m sure but we were middle of BFE)and she would head up to my friend. I started to head over to the Mess hall through the wet grass and gravel barefoot. I’m about halfway there when the nurse runs out on the balcony shouting “SOMEONE CALL 911!” I then run across the gravel, portly and overweight little old me, huffing and puffing up this hill, scared to death, and run in to tell the camp cooks. I don’t remember much more except they kept me there and hearing later when everyone came in for lunch that the Directors and some parents (One of whom was an EMT) responded and that the Squad showed up shortly after.

The day went by normally till Mid afternoon when the directors and the nurse returned. The nurse pulled me over during practice and hugged me tightly, telling me I had saved my friend’s life. She had gone into a diabetic seizure on the nurse and if I had waited longer, she might not have had such a good outcome. My friend didn’t attend the rest of bandcamp obviously, but came back to see us on the last night and I have a wonderful photo of us hugging. So.. I didn’t really call 911.. but I kinda called an emergency?

Had to call 911 when I was…10? 12? My mom and little sister had gone shopping and I was home with my dad who was mowing the lawn. He came in after a bit and was really sweaty and just didn’t look right. He laid down right on the floor and told me he just needed to rest. I knew something was wrong and kept asking if he was ok. He said yes but I knew he was lying. I found the yellow pages (!!!), looked up the number to the store my mom was at, asked to have her paged (which she IGNORED) so I could talk to her. I told my dad I was scared and he said if I called 911 he’d ground me. I pulled out the neighborhood directory to get the number of my moms best friend (she was a nurse), told her what was going on. She said she’d be right there. I hung up with her and called 911 anyway. Neighbor got there first, mom got home right after EMS took my dad to the hospital because he was having a heart attack. I didn’t get grounded and I still yell at my mom from time to time for ignoring the page!!

I’ve called 911 once. I was living alone, ground floor apartment, working night shifts as a nurse. This particular day I came home and fell asleep on the couch, waking up around 7:30pm (12 hour night shifts! No judging!). I was still pretty groggy and couldn’t figure out why someone was knocking on my back door. It opened out onto this little wooded area, so no one ever used it, and my porch light had been out for months, so I couldn’t see a darn thing when I peeked between the slats of the blinds. I’m pretty sure I said, “Hello?”. Definitely still half-asleep. That lasted until the person on the other side started begging me to let her in because “he’s going to kill me”. THAT woke me up in a hurry and I told whoever it was that I was calling 911. The operator had me asking questions of my mystery visitor while we waited for the cops to show up. The whole time she kept begging me to let her inside. Longest 8 minutes or so of my life. Once the cops arrived I opened the door and found this 20-something woman on my back patio with her ankles and wrists duct taped. She really had escaped from her abusive boyfriend and wound up bunny-hopping through the trees to my back patio…which she picked because she liked my patio furniture!

Fast forward a year or so later and I got to testify at the trial of the abusive boyfriend. Sadly, I never found out how the trial ended. They let me leave after they played the tape of the 911 call and both lawyers asked me a few questions.

After that I always picked apartments on the 2nd or 3rd story.

One time I was sitting at home when I heard an INCREDIBLY LOUD NOISE outside, and I ran out to find an SUV that had been hit broadside at the intersection and flipped over. I called 911, but I wasn’t the first one to do it, so the operator was like “Oh that. Yeah, we got it.” Nobody was hurt, except the SUV itself.

Hmm. I’ve called 911 a bunch. Just recently like three days ago when someone threw a rock and broke my windshield while driving. One time someone was running down the road with a chainsaw terrorizing people on halloween. A few times when I’ve seen some fights. Car accidents. Probably more.

A few years ago my son was scheduled for dental work in a town about an hour away from where we lived. When we woke up that morning it had snowed. I check the road report and it didn’t sound too bad so we headed out. Two miles after getting on the interstate a man comes running up out of the ditch waving his arms. Turns out he had rolled his truck with his three kids, wife and brother in truck. No one had seat belts and everyone was thrown out. I ran around checking on everyone for the dispatcher while my poor kids were sitting in the car. The brother of the driver had blood pouring down his face and so I had grabbed a towel from my car to hold over his cuts and sat him in the front seat to warm up and my son was completely terrified. I felt so bad to have my kids in the that situation but you can’t just drive away from hurt children.

I remember being maybe 7 or 8 and my grandma calling our house to ask me to call 911 for her because she was having a diabetic reaction of some sort. I remember thinking, “Why call to have ME do it when you could have called yourself…?” It was odd. But she was taken care of so I suppose it ended well.

What an interesting prompt. I used to live off of a street filled with bars and my husband and I called 911 many, many times. Here are the memorable ones. I called once during the middle of the night when I heard a guy screaming “he’s killing me”. Once when I opened my front door and a guy was passed out on my porch. He was such a mess he couldn’t walk or talk. Oh and once when a drunk driver hit every car on our street and then face planted on our lawn. I’ve only called once in our new house when I heard what sounded like a guy beating a woman in the street, at night. I did see a guy hiding in our bushes one morning, but did not call. For some reason, he didn’t seem threatening to me. I also call in drunk drivers when I see them.

I called a few months ago when my two-year-old locked himself in my car in our west-facing garage our hot ass summer afternoon. A year ago I called while on a side street after I saw a couple get into a fight in their car. She tried to get out. He pulled her back in by her hair and slammed her door, then proceeded to speed off. I called 911 while trying to follow them so I could tell dispatch where they were. I was worried about the possibility of a child in the car. The windows where tinted so I couldn’t tell. I never did find out what happened.

Not connected to my work, I’ve called 3 times. Once when I was out with a friend, and we witnessed someone having some sort of cardiac incident. The second time, to report a drunk driver, the third when I saw a pedestrian stumbling in and out of traffic.
I work in the outpatient mental health setting, and I’ve had to call for people who have disclosed that they have a plan to hurt themselves (or someone else) so that they can be evaluated by the police. Too many times to count, for that one, unfortunately.

I called 911 when I was 14, because my friend had called me and told me that she was going to commit suicide, and that she had taken a bunch of pills. She didn’t want me to call but I told her that I loved her and I wasn’t going to let her do this, and that I was going to hang up and call 911. She said “okay,” and I did.

I had to get her address out of our elementary school “phone book.”

I’ve called several times for drunk, disorderly fights in the courtyard of my building. This winter I witnessed the start of a mugging and ducked around the corner out of sight to call 911. I was able to give enough information that the cops found the people and asked me to come ID them on the street. I got picked up in an unmarked car with three detectives in it and they drove me to the corner where the people were being held and they brought them out one by one into the light while I sat in the car behind tinted windows and talked about what I saw.

I’ve called for traffic accidents while I’ve been on highways, too. While I was on tour we actually stayed on with the operator long enough to help state cops track down a really dangerous drunk driver.

I don’t know that I remember each and every time I’ve done it but it is weird and sort of bad every time.

The one and only time, I called 911 on a kid in our classroom who was unrousable. We see many kids with medical issues, but I’ve never had to call 911 on any of THEM. He came in asleep off the bus, which isn’t unusual for little preschoolers, and he sleeps with his eyes open a slit (so. weird.), but there was just something about him that tweaked my antennae in his direction. None of the other adults in the room had medical experience, and I’ve worked in a hospital, which is probably the only reason I picked up on it–I’ve absorbed those sensitivities. Anyway, I did the sternal rub with almost no response (!!!), counted his breaths per minute, which were closer to an adult male’s rate than a young child’s, and called 911. It turned out he’d been overdosed on his ADHD meds, through no fault of his guardian. Oy. Vey. In all likelihood he would have slept it off and no one would have been the wiser, but I regret nothing. I think they picked up a (benign) heart murmur at this same ER visit, too. Crazy world. Now the kid who had the fire department out to his house multiple times per year for medical emergencies, HE had zero issues at school. Constant vigilance, as per Mad-Eye.

Oh, I guess I did call on a very loud domestic disturbance last year. The woman was saying things like “you’re scaring me”, so I called. By the time the cops drove around (less than 5 minutes), all was quiet. They were either walking home and were gone, or realized how loud they were and went inside. I’d been in my back yard, so I couldn’t see where they were.
And then there was the time I called 911 from my bathroom at 2 a.m., to try to get the number for animal control because there was a bat loose in my apartment, I had a recently dislocated shoulder, and was too scared to go back out and grab the phone book. But I’m saving that for my someday stand-up routine.

I’ve only called 911 once, when my then 7-week-old daughter had a seizure during a midnight feeding. Long story short, she’s fine and almost 4 now. But boy howdy, that was terrifying.

A few years ago, I woke up to walk the dog the morning after Halloween. It was a Monday, about 5:30am. I was in the kitchen making coffee and I heard a scream outside. I ran to the front of the house to look out the window and realized that it had been a “good” scream. There were two people, TOTALLY NAKED, having sex in a car in front of my house. My kids were about to wake up, and it was pretty rowdy, so I called 911. Apparently, if you have a real emergency and are concerned about response time, the thing to do is to say there are people having sex in front of your house. We had three cop cars there in less than three minutes. I don’t know what their story was, but they were totally wasted and she looked pretty damn hoochie. Not sure if she was actually a prostitute or was just dressed as one for Halloween! She was released and staggered away down our street in her stilettos. The dude was arrested and left behind a couple of six packs next to the car.

I called 911 once when my (now-ex) step-dad choked my mom during an argument. I was 15.

It feels oddly refreshing to write that down.

Okay I’m going anon for this one because the car-sex people reminded me of it but it’s so embarrassing:

I used to live in a really nice, family-friendly neighborhood and everyone on our block knew each other and we kinda looked out for one another. One night, it was drizzly and I noticed an unfamiliar car parked along a fence right across from our house. It was idling, I think the parking lights were on. Thought that was strange, and even stranger still when it was still there like 15-20 minutes later, still idling. Due to the drizzle I couldn’t see if or who was inside. I got paranoid that someone was casing our block or whatever so I called the police (I think I called the non-emergency number at least). Well, it was two teenagers either having sex or very close to it. We lived a mile from a high school! The cops pulled the girl out separately, it looked like they were making sure it was consensual. Both kids were obviously MORTIFIED. What a buzzkill! I felt so awful…

Reading this, I realize that I have called 911 a fair amount. A few times over the years for hearing people screaming bloody murder outside my window. (I have lived in the city a bunch.)
Once my mom called 911 for me. I was laying in the couch and swallowed a butterscotch candy whole before it had melted by any measure. It got stuck in my throat and hurt so bad. I lost my lunch in the kitchen sink. My mom was terrified and called. I swear four fire trucks and an ambulance showed up for little ol’ preteen me and my butterscotch. I’m still kind of scared of hard candies and have a habit of biting them in half.
Another time I was riding along at night in a friends car. We were driving through a green light and noticed a car stopped at the intersection in the other lane. That same second we heard the whack! as another car rearended the stopped-for-no-reason car. We pulled over. I called. Friend got out to see if people were ok. I got over there a minute later and I think there was talk of trying to pull the stopped car driver out of the car and I was all “Noooooo! Leave him in the car. He might have injuries.” EMS came and we were on our way.

I called once at my first house when drunk neighbors had a fight in their car in the middle of the street, he pushed her out of the (parked) car and she yelled for help.

We called once after my husband and I were mugged at gunpoint two blocks from home.

I don’t remember other times, but it’s possible. I was jumped years ago and, like an idiot, didn’t call police until the next day (after everyone I knew told me I really needed to), so I skipped the 911.