The truth about my latest 911 call

I am writing this for those of you who were not at my apartment complex tonight when Joplin Police Department vehicles arrived with sirens flashing.

Now for the first and only time, I am going to tell the truth, as embarrassing at it is, about what really happened when I called 911.

It started this morning when a call came in on my iPhone. I answered it, but couldn't hear anyone and I don't imagine anyone could hear me.

I thought nothing about it. I had not recognized the number and no name appeared on caller ID, which usually means I don't bother to take the call, so I thought nothing of it.







When a friend called late this afternoon and the same thing happened, it finally dawned on me that my phone had a problem. It is a new phone that I bought in December when my last phone stopped charging, so I searched for the volume button and found it was turned up all the way.

I looked at everything I could find in settings and could still find no answer.

Finally, I used my landline phone (yes, I still have one) and called AT&T, where a polite, but hard to understand gentleman guided me through a number of steps, none of which helped.

At one point, he had me removed the phone's covering to check something, but that did not pan out either.

Finally, he repeated the wise words that my former assistant principal at South and East middle schools, Jarrett Cook, told me several years ago that worked wonders for me.

"Did you try turning the phone off then turning it back on again?"

So, I did that and when he called me on the iPhone, I could hear him and he could hear me. I thanked him profusely, amazed that somehow Jarrett Cook's words had found their way to an AT&T technician.

Problem solved.

I had a difficult time putting the cover back on the phone and as I was doing so, I noticed that I almost turned the phone off again. I stopped that and was struggling once more to put the cover on, when I noticed I had slid the emergency button and it was dialing 911.







I tried desperately to stop the call, but it was too late. I managed to turn it off, but not until the dispatcher had answered the call and I caught her first few words.

I had dialed the 9 and was preparing to dial the other two numbers again to let the dispatcher know there was no emergency, but I was too late. The dispatcher was already returning the call.

I sheepishly admitted that it had been an accident and apologized profusely.

So if you were not at my apartment complex when the police arrived with their sirens flashing, don't worry. You didn't miss a thing. No one else saw that happen either.

As God as is my witness, I did not even know my phone had an emergency button.