2-Day Search for 911 Call

Benton County (Ark.) dispatcher Toni Brandon fielded a wireless E911 call where a child’s voice said, “He shot me.” The call was disconnected, and a call back went unanswered. Dispatcher Tammy Rogers tracked the phone down to a pre-paid T-Mobile handset purchased by someone in Texas. She also learned from the company the area from which the call was made. But she didn’t find any matching incidents reported to police or fire in that area. She spent the next two days working on the call in between other incidents. On the second day T-Mobile provided phone numbers that the handset had called, and Rogers began dialing some of them. She eventually reached the phone owner’s cousin, who located the owner in Rogers (Ark.). A call there determined that the handset had been to her kids to play with, and the 911 call had been just a prank. Read the full store here.