Diyona Oladipupo was home alone when burglars broke into her family home in Chula Vista, California, several years ago.
The 15-year-old at the time was at home while her parents were at work and were not expected to get back until hours later.
So, when she heard the doorbell ring and then the alarm of her family’s home security system, she knew that something was terribly wrong and that she needed to keep calm and act quickly.
The smart teenager took off her shoes so that the intruders would not hear her walk inside the house, while she also grabbed the phone in order to call 911.
The girl hid in her parents’ walk-in closet, behind a rack of clothes. She hoped that the burglars could not see her, but she feared they soon would because she could see them.
“I was so scared because I could see them. And I thought they were going to see me. They were just taking things from my mom,” she told ABC News.
As soon as she hid in the closet, she called 911 and she was connected to a dispatcher right away.
In the phone call that was released to ABC News, the girl can be heard talking to the dispatcher, who tried to help the teen remain calm and do as she was told in order to remain safe until help arrived at the house.
“My officers want you to know that your whole house is surrounded, you’re in safe hands, but just stay where you are,” the dispatcher said on the 911 call.
When the woman on the other end of the line realized that the intruders had entered the room where the girl was hiding, she asked her to stop talking.
Instead, she asked her to respond to her questions by tapping on the phone so that her voice would not be heard.
“She was clearly frightened, but remarkably calm,” Officer Gary Wedge told ABC News.
Minutes later, the burglars had taken all they could from the house and were ready to leave, but they were arrested by the police officers that had surrounded the house as soon as they exited the house.
The burglars were identified as three teenagers, and they were immediately arrested and brought into custody by the police.
The officer who answered Diyona’s emergency call explained that dispatchers are trained to remain calm and talk in such a way to 911 callers in order to help them feel that they are not alone.
The teenager admitted that she stayed safe thanks to the dispatcher’s advice, actually saying that if she had been on the phone with someone else she might have “freaked out”.
What a scary experience for the teenager, and what a great job the girl, the dispatcher, and the police did in order for this story to have a happy ending.
Watch Diyona and Officer Wedge recall the frightening event in the video below!
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