Posted on 09/16/2024 4:31:39 AM PDT by Red Badger
A case of mistaken municipality had an emergency call from a boat sinking in the English Channel off the coast of Dover, England go to local rescuers in Dover, Delaware, prompting them to help save stranded sailors
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Have you ever answered the phone and realized the person on the other end of the line meant to call someone else? Well, that happened to 911 dispatchers in Dover, Delaware. NBC10’s Tim Furlong has the story.
Police in Dover, Delaware, helped save a boat stranded at sea more than 3,650 miles away when an emergency call meant for Dover, England, mistakenly went to local dispatchers on Aug. 27, 2024.
According to police, that day, at about 3:36 p.m., the Dover Police Department got an emergency call from an individual in Albania who said they needed help because their brother's boat was sinking into the English Channel off the coast of Dover, England.
Officials learned the individual had done a panicked internet search for the "Dover Police Department," and thought they were calling England, but instead called first responders in Delaware, thousands of miles away.
"Please, my brother called me, he's with a boat, they are going down," the caller can be heard saying in a recording of the emergency call. "They are almost in England, but their boat is leaking now. The engine don't work."
According to law enforcement officials, Communications Operator MacKenzie Atkinson kept the individual on the line and collected information -- including the coordinates of the ship at sea -- and followed the protocols to assist a ship in distress.
The boater was sailing from Calais, France 23 miles across the English Channel to Dover, England when it began to take on water.
"I just kept reassuring him we are going to have help on the way to his brother," Atkinson said.
Local
That’s pretty cool. Kudos to the Dover, Delaware USA Dispatcher for taking the call and helping to solve this situation and getting help to the right place and not just hanging up on the Brother.
Albanians? ... I wonder how many muslims were on board trying to get to Britain?
Having worked 9-1-1 dispatch I can guarantee you that hanging up on a distress call would get you fired.
Thank You for Your work and information.
2 weekends ago the stepdaughter was in an accident with someone running a Red Light and hitting the car she was driving (as the Designated Driver) she called 911 and got put on Hold and that turned into Ignore after 3 minutes. The 911 system was the one for CMPD (Charlotte/Mecklenburg City PD/ County Sheriff) and the LEO’s arrived and she was still on Ignore so she hung up on 911.
Not uncommon for them from what we know about the system in Charlotte.
As she told the story, the phone rang-it had a strange sounding ring. Someone answered and my wife said she would like to order a pizza. The person on the other end said, “We’re not open yet, can you call back later?”
She replied “Why aren’t you open.” It was 6PM, or somewhere close. He asked her “Lady, where are you calling from?” She told him-I should add that he had a strange accent- and he told her, lady, this is Opal’s Pizza, in Moe, Australia.”
It turns out the two pizza places had similar names, but were a few miles apart.
I told her, “Next time you order, do it BEFORE you have a glass of wine”.
“Sorry, mate, That’s outside our delivery range.”.............
Right, lol! I won’t let forget about that one!
I’m old school. So you don’t have to dial 011 plus some other numbers to dial internationally?
Seems to me that having to dial 011 plus a country code plus the telephone number would be in indication that something isn’t right.
You do have to dial 011 to dial internationally.
Otherwise the call will be misrouted or not go through because the country code and whatever digits follow will be interpreted as an area code.
How about human trafficker. Are they really that naive at NBC news?
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