'I very sternly requested that they arrest my mother': 20+ Kids who called 911 for the silliest reasons

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Aug 8, 2024 11:00 AM EDT

Accidentally calling emergency services is basically a rite of passage for toddlers. It seems like almost everyone has a story about the time they or their sibling grabbed their parent's phone and managed to call 911. It doesn't take much effort to accidentally hit that emergency button. Instead of watching a YouTube video on Dad's phone or playing games on Mom's iPad, that toddler has magically discovered that they called an emergency helpline. They're delighted to have a new friend to talk to, but their parents will be mortified when the police show up at their door to have a stern talk with the little one about when it is or isn't appropriate to call. 

These people also have some great stories to share about the funniest non-emergency 911 calls they know of. Some people had young siblings who chose to tattle not to the parents, but instead to the police. Others were handed a phone and managed to contact authorities without their parents knowing. There are a bunch of great stories to check out! 

Up next, this website manager agreed to their boss's new rules, meaning they can work fewer hours, but commenters pointed out a pressing issue that the original poster seemed unaware of. 

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  • 01
    Ant 5349
    via Michael Förtsch on Unsplash
  • 02
    911 operators, what's the funniest thing you had a kid call in?
    via u/[deleted]
  • 03
    EarthRocker54. I had a kid ask me if my refrigerator was "working." I replied with "Do you mean is it running?" He cussed at me and then hung up.
    via u/EarthRocker54
  • 04
    idgieluvsruth I had a little boy call 911 to tell me he was hungry and needed breakfast. I asked him if he was alone and he said no his sister was watching him but she was sleeping. I told him he should go wake his sister to have her make him breakfast, he said she
    via u/idgieluvsruth
  • 05
    is real mean and she won't be nice to me! I said ok, you stay in the house and I will take care of this. His mom was an EMT so I knew his family, I called his grandma and had her go take care of the breakfast crisis and his sister had no idea. His mom later called to apologize and I just
    via u/idgieluvsruth
  • 06
    asked her to explain the general rules of 911. Edit: It should be noted the unfortunate turn of events mentioned in the comments happened years after he called. At the time of the call they were just a normal sibling pair, one who possibly
    via u/idgieluvsruth
  • 07
    wouldn't make breakfast for another and got the cops called on them.
    via u/idgieluvsruth
  • 08
    datangeldoe I had a little one call in to our center about 10 times, just so she could tells us that she loved us and appreciated us, and we are doing such a great job. Our center is pretty big, so she would get a different person almost every time. However, if she got you more than
    via u/datangeldoe
  • 09
    once, she would say something like, "Nonono, I already told you! I need to tell someone else. You're great, but they need to know they're great, too! Okay, I love you, bye!" It was all from a disconnected cell, and we weren't really getting a great phase on her location, but she stopped after
    via u/datangeldoe
  • 10
    about an hour, so it wasnt super concerning. Made my day! I hope she grows up and keeps that big heart of hers, we need more people like her in the world. (They dont necessarily need to call 911, but the point still stands lol.)
    via u/datangeldoe
  • 11
    COSAS When I was four years old I was watching a fire safety video. They told me to call 911, so I did.
    via u/COSAS
  • 12
    IAmA_Dispatcher. Me: 911 where is the emergency? Little Mexican kid: Uh.. yeah.. I.. we need a.. a vegetarian. Me: (long pause) A what?? Kid: A vegetarian.
    via u/IAmA_Dispatcher
  • 13
    Me: (Silence as I am processing this) Kid: For my dog he's sick. Me: Ohhhh.. okay you need a veterinarian. Sorry buddy but 911 is for human emergencies..! Kid: Oh, okay bye.
    via u/IAmA_Dispatcher
  • 14
    Kid had to have been like 10 to 12 years old.
    via u/IAmA_Dispatcher
  • 15
    astronomie_domine My dad was the Chief of Police when I was growing up, and I spent a lot of time at the station. When I was 4 or 5, my mom wouldn't let me do something, so I called the emergency line (pre-911 days) and after the Police, what is your
    via u/astronomie_domine
  • 16
    emergency" greeting, I very sternly requested that they arrest my mother. The dispatcher recognized the address I was calling from and called my dad to tell him that I was on the emergency line and what I wanted.
    via u/astronomie_domine
  • 17
    I got a lecture that night, but from what my dad says, they had a good laugh about it at the station.
    via u/astronomie_domine
  • 18
    Shrimpheavennow227. My cousin called because she was giving her lizard a bath and it went down the drain. (It was like a tiny house gecko named Steve). She called 911 crying that Steve was drowning and had gone down the drain. By the time the dispatcher figured
    via u/Shrimpheavennow227
  • 19
    out Steve was a gecko the police and fire dept were already pulling in. She was like 6 or so and I still tease her about it.....I do feel bad for Steve though.
    via u/Shrimpheavennow227
  • 20
    markko79 A four year old called in to say that his dad took his trick or treat candy. Yeah, he took it so the kid wouldn't fill his face in a single night. The dad was planning to ration it out.
    via u/markko79
  • 21
    [deleted] My son managed to hit the emergency dialer on my cellphone while i was doing laundry. I heard him happily babbling toddler gibberish before saying, "Kay, bye!" And handing me the phone. He pretends to talk on it so i thought nothing of it until i heard,
    via u/[deleted]
  • 22
    "Hello? Hello?" On the phone. I apologized a LOT and removed the option for emergency dialing without actually unlocking the screen. The lovely lady on the other end didnt seem to upset by it.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 23
    Timjustchillin My older brother said he called the cops on me for something, so I called them back to say nothing was wrong and that he was lying because I was scared. My dad was
    via u/Timjustchillin
  • 24
    2muchinxs On a Saturday morning about 7 am I was "sleeping in" and my 2yo called 911 because he wanted breakfast. I didn't know til a sheriff was knocking on the front door doing a welfare check. I would love to have heard that conversation.
    via u/2muchinxs
  • 25
    aryaazar78 When we were younger and home alone, my sister called the police on my brother because they both wanted the same In N Out Burger. We had 4 identical burgers, but they wanted the same one.
    via u/aryaazar78
  • 26
    The police came to our house and explained to us why we shouldn't call the police for no reason. Our mom came home in the middle of their lecture. She was not happy.
    via u/aryaazar78
  • 27
    Jsq911 I was on the job when 911 first was implemented in my County on the late 1980's. When I answered "911, what is your emergency", kid said, "My is too short" and, of course, he hung up laughing, not realizing that with 911 we knew where he was. Thirty
    via u/Jsq911
  • 28
    minutes later the Sergeant had him at the station explaining to me why he used such bad language 'to such a nice lady'. I just retired last year after 30 years in the Comm Center.
    via u/Jsq911
  • 29
    [deleted] My favourite call recently was from an 11 year old kid who was walking home from school and got lost. He called 999 in a panic, so I told him to stay where he was until officers arrived. We didn't have officers available for about 30 minutes, so we just spent half an
    via u/[deleted]
  • 30
    hour chatting about fortnite. I guess not exactly a funny call, but it was enjoyable!
    via u/[deleted]
  • 31
    ElusiveAoide My kid was 17 months old and impossible to tie down. While I was cooking dinner he went into the study and somehow dialled triple zero (emergency line in Australia). I think he was trying to talk to his Nanna, but panicked when a stranger's voice came down the line instead.
    via u/ElusiveAoide
  • 32
    I caught him and hung up the phone, not knowing he'd actually dialled anyone. Then I went back to cooking butter chicken for dinner. Fourteen minutes later the police are on my doorstep.
    via u/ElusiveAoide
  • 33
    They came in urgently, looking for "an old man who might have fallen down". The emergency line operator had asked several questions, but the only response she had gotten was laboured, heavy breathing that she thought was an old man too injured to speak. Luckily for us, it
    via u/ElusiveAoide
  • 34
    was just sneaky and confused toddler wheezing. We figured it out and I brought my kid out to meet the policemen. One of them said "Yeah, that'd be the perp. Look at the guilty look on his face." Funnily enough, my kid did have an expression of extreme chagrin. Possibly the
    via u/ElusiveAoide
  • 35
    first and last time he ever felt guilty for anything.
    via u/ElusiveAoide
  • 36
    Nickemjay Not a 911 operator, but my parents love to bring this story up so I thought I'd share. One morning when i was about 4 or 5 I called 911 to tell them that nobody in the house was dead. They wanted to speak to my parents, and I kept insisting they didn't need to because no
    via u/Nickemjay
  • 37
    one was dead. Eventually I hung up on them and they called back and got to speak to my parents, WHO WERE ALIVE AS PROMISED
    via u/Nickemjay
  • 38
    JamezPS My brother called the police on me because I wouldn't let him watch the Simpsons when we were younger. Told them I was being mean to him. They called my parents back for a very interesting conversation.
    via u/JamezPS
  • 39
    needsmoremayo My mom was a 911 operator. When telling us about her new job, she was describing to my brother and I that she got a job at the place you call 911. Next day moms at work. My brother calls 911 just to tell mom bout his day.
    via u/needsmoremayo
  • 40
    Damocles2010 My son wondered what the SOS button near the sunroof in my BMW did - while I was grabbing something in the supermarket. I came back as he was trying to explain his button pushing mistake to the emergency operator! He is 35 years old!
    via u/Damocles2010
  • 41
    larkerpong I called the cops on my older brother when I was 6. He wouldn't let me into our room. They called back and told my parents.
    via u/larkerpong
  • 42
    Thatguyfrom Michigan. About ten years ago, my preteen little sister once accidentally called 911 while calling her best friend (her phone number, minus the area code, started with 9 and 1) and then hung up as soon as she realized her mistake without saying anything to the
    via u/Thatguyfrom Michigan
  • 43
    operator. She didn't tell anyone in the family what she had done, for fear of getting in trouble, and hoped it would just go away. This was seen as suspicious, and a police officer already driving in the area was sent to our house. It just so happens that around that same time, my mom's sister
    via u/Thatguyfrom Michigan
  • 44
    was visiting and she was leaving. The cop arrived just as she pulled out of our driveway. My sister actually saw the cop pass just after she left, and was horrified, but hoped it was just a coincidence and still didn't tell anyone. The cop decided to follow our aunt and pulled her over a block away.
    via u/Thatguyfrom Michigan
  • 45
    The mistake was figured out pretty quickly though, and he let her go without ever coming back to our house. My aunt called the house laughing as soon as she got home; until this point my parents and me still didn't know she had even been pulled over.
    via u/Thatguyfrom Michigan
  • 46
    My sister was finally exposed, and while she was not punished she did get teased a lot by Mom.
    via u/Thatguyfrom Michigan
  • 47
    Czar1891 I called 911 when I was about 5 or so just to see if it would work. Naturally, an operator answered almost immediately and caught me off guard. When asked what the emergency was all I could manage to say was my name before I quickly hung up the
    via u/Czar1891
  • 48
    phone. They called back and talked to my mom who wasn't thrilled when they asked if I was okay.
    via u/Czar1891
  • 49
    [deleted] My buddy's dad was a state trooper. He was home alone when he was like 12, and called 911 and asked them to "Tell daddy to bring Doritos when he comes home”.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 50
    Greysisbae When I was 4, I called 911 on my parents for forcing me to eat fish for dinner. They promptly called back and my mom answered.. let's just say I never complained about eating fish ever again.
    via u/Greysisbae
  • 51
    Agent_Wolff Not an operator, but a responder. A few years back, one kid called 911 on his brother not letting him play XBox. My friend, the operator, put me in for a conference call. In the background I heard this guy shout, "HOLY HE'S TAKING THE TRUCK"
    via u/Agent_Wolff
  • 52
    Apparently, the parents made the kid get off the XBox, and go outside, so the kid did the logical thing. Steal the UPS truck parked across the street.
    via u/Agent_Wolff

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