Since October, Apple Has Made Around 1,600 False Alarm 911 Calls From Elk Grove Facility

CBS ^ | Feb 22, 2018

[BenLurkin]

Apple hasn’t confirmed which of their devices is actually causing these calls: the iPhone or Apple watch, but both devices can be triggered easily. With just a touch of a button, SOS comes on and 911 is called.

“It could potentially have an impact on the services we provide,” said Sgt. Hampton.

[InABunkerUnderSF]

Dial "9" to get an outside line. Go to dial "011" to place an international call but miss the zero or just fat finger and stutter the "1" before the area code on a long distance call. Emergency services answers, the caller panics and hangs up instead of saying "Sorry I miss dialed." Or my old favorite "This is a line test. Where do you show this call originating from?" The police are dispatched. About the hundredth time, fines are threatened...

Or it could just be that the smart people who programmed the PBX made themselves a dial plan problem.

It happens.

[LukeL]

Reminds me of the story where a man went to the police every day for over a year and confessed to a unsolved murder, then one day his wife turns up dead and he confesses to killing her, the police do not believe him.

[tv_techie]

Especially a problem in the 916 area, where a change was just implemented to overlay a new area code. ALL local calls now require 1-916-###-####. Add a 9 in front of that to get an outside line and it doesn’t take much to get 911 or 9911, both of which PBX and VoIP systems will route to 911. My guess is they reprogrammed their system in October for 10 digit dialing. I’ve been dealing with the same problem at my work. Fortunately on a much smaller scale!

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Yep. We had that problem for a while. About a month before we got our phone system changes so you dialed 8 for an outside line.

[Hootowl]

I once had a job where whenever I would call home (which included 911 in the number) the police and fire department showed up. Never figured out why and it never got fixed.

[Neidermeyer]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsgdB2IGVpg

[a fool in paradise]

I saw one where a tuber asked SIRI on several iphones to “update” or something and it initiated a sequence to dial 911.

[Guardian Sebastian]

About 20 years ago when cell phones were just starting to become common, our cell phone number was 314.991.1101. You would not dial it on redial or you would get 911. We got tired of it and had the number changed.

[ctdonath2]

I used to work on a tech support phone line.

One guy called complaining that whenever he dialed in to the company network, the police would show up at his door.
Turns out he had gone to a conference.
To get an outside line with his computer, it had to dial “91”.
Then to get the company computer, it had to dial “1-800-...”
And when he came home, and didn’t change the setting, it proceeded to dial “911-800-...”.

For real.