Today, I had my first (genuine) call from a child. I say 'genuine', because I have had several calls from kids, but up until now they've all been hoaxes.
I was connected to the operator as soon as the call dropped into my ear, and he read out the phone number the child was calling from, before adding that the caller sounded like a child. I'm ashamed to say that as soon as he said this, I was already to prepare myself for explaining to the dispatcher that the call was a hoax. But when the child gave me the address and I asked what the problem was, it sounded pretty genuine.
The child's mother had fallen and hurt her back, she was unable to move properly. While I arranged help, I notified the crew that the caller was a child, and was 7 years old. The child was very calm, and as well as phoning 999 for help, he calmed his little sister down who was a little upset at the commotion. The child's mother was Indian, so he translated my questions into Indian for his mother, and back to English. I was thoroughly impressed, and that call made me change my views on child callers completely. I vowed to initially take all calls like this seriously, unless they seem blatantly obvious that they're hoax. I got a call 3 weeks ago from a couple of kids who claimed that a factory in Barnsley was on fire - "That's strange, how do you know about what's going on in Barnsley when you're calling from a phone box 250 miles away?" I asked. They hung up, horrified that I'd seen through their stupidity.
I was connected to the operator as soon as the call dropped into my ear, and he read out the phone number the child was calling from, before adding that the caller sounded like a child. I'm ashamed to say that as soon as he said this, I was already to prepare myself for explaining to the dispatcher that the call was a hoax. But when the child gave me the address and I asked what the problem was, it sounded pretty genuine.
The child's mother had fallen and hurt her back, she was unable to move properly. While I arranged help, I notified the crew that the caller was a child, and was 7 years old. The child was very calm, and as well as phoning 999 for help, he calmed his little sister down who was a little upset at the commotion. The child's mother was Indian, so he translated my questions into Indian for his mother, and back to English. I was thoroughly impressed, and that call made me change my views on child callers completely. I vowed to initially take all calls like this seriously, unless they seem blatantly obvious that they're hoax. I got a call 3 weeks ago from a couple of kids who claimed that a factory in Barnsley was on fire - "That's strange, how do you know about what's going on in Barnsley when you're calling from a phone box 250 miles away?" I asked. They hung up, horrified that I'd seen through their stupidity.
No comments:
Post a Comment