Police 911 call takers have an incredibly important job. The decisions they make can turn out to be the difference between life and death. Usually, these professionals get straightforward information from people calling, allowing them to dispatch fire trucks, an ambulance, or the police…sometimes, all three.
But once in a while, 911 call takers have to decipher what the other person on the end of the line is trying to say. For instance, if someone’s in a kidnapping or hostage situation, there’s an excellent chance they can’t just pick up the phone to call for help. That’s what happened to a woman in Oregon, Ohio. She desperately needed help but had to come up with a creative way to ask for it.
On November 13, one 911 call taker relied on his 14-years of experience.
Tim TenEyck, a 54-year-old man who works answering 911 calls, had a strange incident happen. After saying his usual spill, “911, what’s your emergency,” the woman wanted to order a pizza. Initially, he thought she’d simply dialed the wrong number, something that happens fairly often.
But then, his keen senses kicked in.
The woman told Tim that she wanted to order a pizza, followed by giving him the address for delivery. His response, “You called 911 to order a pizza?” But after speaking with the woman for just a minute, he knew something wasn’t right. It became obvious this caller was reaching out for help. Something was telling him the call had nothing to do with pizza.
The caller was determined to get her message across.
The woman talking to Tim was insistent that she wanted a pizza delivered to a specific apartment address. In response to his question about did she dial incorrectly, she said, “No, you’re not understanding. That’s when it clicked. With careful questioning, he knew there was a domestic violence situation going on.
Tim explained how he picked up on what the caller was saying.
As a longtime 911 call taker, he said, “This code is not a code that automatically means something.” Using a series of yes and no questions, she would reply with things like, “Yep, I need a large pizza.” If she needed to respond with a no to his question, she would say “No. With pepperoni.” While he tried to get her to stay on the call, she refused.
That’s when he dispatched law enforcement to the address the woman provided.
Following standard protocol, Tim reminded the officers to “Turn your sirens off before you get there.” That way, the perpetrator wouldn’t have any idea that help was approaching. He then went on to explain to the police that the “Caller ordered a pizza and agreed with everything I said. There’s domestic violence going on.”
Tim was correct in his assumption.
Upon arrival, officers arrested 56-year-old Simon Ray Lopez. Come to find out, the 38-year-old caller reached out for help when her mother’s boyfriend came home drunk. He proceeded to punch the mother in the arm and then pushed her while stating he was going to do harm to her.
Lopez was arrested and charged with one count of “domestic violence knowingly causing or attempting to cause physical harm to family or household member.” Although Tim had his fair share of odd 911 calls, a coded one like this was something rare. Thankfully, the female caller reached the right call taker, one who quickly knew she was in trouble.
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