Posted on 05/18/2006 11:33:06 AM PDT by BenLurkin
LAKE LOS ANGELES - Wakened from a midmorning nap Tuesday, Linda Johnson tried to make sense of what was happening. Los Angeles County sheriff's Deputy Greg Hovland was on her front doorstep investigating a 911 call that had been placed from her residence. "I heard this pounding on my front door, and then someone said, 'We had a 911 call, Mrs. Johnson. Are you all right?' But I didn't phone 911," Johnson said.
"However, I took Bongo, my yellow-napped Amazon parrot, into the bedroom, and I guess he got bored and started playing with the numbers on the phone."
"I could hear the birds in the house, and I could see her searching her mind for an explanation," Hovland said. "Then she looked at her birds, and she knew."
Hovland and Johnson had a good chuckle over Bongo's call.
"I have been raising and training birds to use to minister to the sick and elderly," said Johnson, who is home-bound as she recovers from breast cancer and other medical concerns.
"Lately I have been teaching Bongo how to play one of those toy pianos with numbers on the keys. He also plays a tambourine and rings. But I think it was those numbers on the piano that got him going on the phone. The piano and the phone were on the bed."
Hovland said the explanation was plausible and he was glad there was no emergency.
"I just wondered about the 911 dispatcher and what the dispatcher was thinking with an open line and hearing the birds and all this banter that sounds like humans talking," Hovland said. "When I was talking with Mrs. Johnson, I could hear them talking in the background. It must have been a bit confusing."
(Excerpt) Read more at avpress.com ...
"BIRD CALLS - Linda Johnson of Lake Los Angeles holds the phone for her parrot Bongo, who apparently called 911 from a touch-tone phone. Johnson raises and trains various parrots to minister to the sick and elderly; however, she didn't realize any could make calls, especially to an emergency number."
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