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Our fax machine called 911

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  • #16
    while working in the gas station we wore alarms on third shift-they were about the size and shape of a garage door opener, with a plastic shield to keep the button from being accidentally pressed. We also found out they contained a mercury switch that activated if you moved like you were being attacked, or had fallen.

    How did we find this out?

    it seems one night during shift change whilst maneuvering amongst the second shift workers and their registers/drop safes I moved in a strange manner(ducking and bending sideways)-there happened to be an officer in the store doing paperwork(we let them use the unused counter in video-known to dispatch as the "video annex office"). He comes up to the counter and says dispatch just radioed an alarm trigger-none of us had pushed it so we determined it was my movements(it was later confirmed by the manager that our alarms did have a mercury switch in them), that set it off-he radioed that he was "responding from the "video annex office" and everything was fine. dispatch rather than call off the alarm(very slow night), told the officer to time the response of other units in the area and the number of responders-within 3 minutes we had no less than 20 cops cars in our lot. Dispatch was amazed, I gave them all coffee and thanked them profusely-the one response I got that actually made me kinda tear up was the one cop that looked me in the eye and told me "you are the sweetest cashier I've ever known, I was actually terrified of that call, because if anything ever happened to you on my watch, I'd never be able to live with myself."

    Sadly he did have to respond to an actual robbery when I was working-the assistant manager was beaten with a crowbar, he was the first responder and the first thing he saw was me covered in the AM's blood(I was on the phone and attempting to administer first aid/stop the bleeding from massive head trauma), he didn't leave my side for the rest of my shift(yes the boss made me finish out my shift, terrifed and blood soaked-I quit within a few weeks of that), though it is kind of nice to have a nice armed guard standing next to you for 5 hours(he was behind the counter with his arm around me the entire time), while you recover from shock, while both you and the police are afraid of the perp returning-especially because I knew him and had physically stopped the attack on my AM.
    Honestly.... the image of that in my head made me go "AWESOME!"..... and then I remembered I am terribly strange.-Red dazes

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    • #17
      omg... never thought this would happen but...

      a long time ago I worked at a little discount store that went out of business after I left. We had to stay late one night to make a work-training video. I don't remember much of what it was about.

      All I remember is that one of the guys was playing with one of the toy gun things we sold. And at one point he was playing that he had the manager at gunpoint but we were all laughing.

      ... and much to our surprise... a couple of cop cars came screaming into the parking lot.
      apparently someone had seen the guy playing with the fake gun and had called the cops.

      they spent a few minutes bitching us out - but there wasn't anything they could do since there wasn't anyone to arrest and no laws broken.

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      • #18
        Coworker did that one night. He meant to call 911 for for one of our emergency dispatches but then realized he had read his screen wrong and hung up on them.

        So they send a couple officers down to the office. ;p One of them listened to his explaination while the other cheerfully went around the office "Searching for bodies" as he put it. <smirk>

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        • #19
          Quoth edible_hat View Post
          We've got birds nesting in one area upstairs. Every now and then we get a call from the alarm company: "Your alarm in upstairs #2 just went off" Whoever's working at the time will explain about the birds and either reset it or explain why they can't reset it. One time I got a call "It's Bob from the alarm company, just calling to let you know the birds set off the alarm again".

          It's all good, it's impossible for a person to trip that alarm without tripping any of the others.
          My girlfriend had that at an tiny (converted garage) pharmacy she used to work at. It took 2 weeks of 3-4 AM calls from the alarm company + the 50 minute round trip to work out that their was a spider in the sensor.

          Apparently a 1/2" spider inside the casing has the same shape as a burglar at 7'
          Lady, people aren't chocolates. D'you know what they are mostly? Bastards. Bastard-coated bastards with bastard filling. Dr Cox - Scrubs

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          • #20
            Well, the fax machine called 911 again yesterday,and then today, so I went through a nice little email to everyone after calling the police station and doing reseasrch online (Google 100 ways to mis-dial 911, btw)


            This is what I emailed:


            For the past few weeks, for some reason the fax machine has been dialing 911. Twice, officers have been sent to our office.

            I called the police today to get more information to see if we would be fined if it happened again. Reassuringly, we will not be fined as it does happen by accident. However, we MUST be very careful when dialing.

            the way the system is set up is we do NOT have to hit 'send' for it to dial 911. Our fax machine will dial the 9 automatically for us. The instant the second 1 is hit (by accident most likely), it starts to dial - regardless if you've hit SEND or not. (This I think is programmed into the telephone system of the city)

            Therefore, be VERY careful when dialing long distance numbers.

            Before you throw fax confirmations out, READ them. The first time we 'dialed' 911, they had sent a fax back asking us to call them to see if its' an emergency. Someone here removed the fax they sent and put it to one side without checking it. Because we did not call, they sent officers and phoned us (and I had to remain on the line with the dispatcher until the officers arrived).

            The officers came again yesterday for the same reason.

            Now, we're not in trouble, but this does tie up city services when responding to false calls. The police officer I spoke to reassured us there is NO fine for accidental faxings of 911. But we DO have to be careful. Before you toss that confirmation out, read it - is it from the police? If so, tell one of the receptionist girls so we can call them and call them back (or you can do it yourself. Just make sure to let us know).

            If you think you dialed 911 on the fax machine, don't worry - Alert the admin staff (Me, Leslie, Krista) so we can keep an eye out for a fax or phone call from the police. The officer I spoke to on the phone today said you can call 266 1234 (hit 0 for a real person). However, this may mean waiting on hold, so just tell the admin girls first and watch the fax machine for a return fax and follow the instructions.

            I put a sign on the fax machine so people are reminded when they send faxes.

            if you have any questions, just let me know - if I don't know, I will find out for you.
            I also now have to be the Fax Nazi and monitor all faxes sent out while I'm there. This is what the boss told me (though he didnt use the term 'fax nazi')
            Do radioactive cats have 18 half-lives?

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            • #21
              Quoth ArcticChicken View Post
              I almost discovered the hard way that my phone can dial 911 when the keypad is locked. Luckily I pulled it out of my pocket before it hit send. This is why is need a flip phone.
              My old phone did that too, twice! It's really unnerving sitting around when I get a call from the police saying 'We just got a 911 call from this phone and nobody answered, is everything OK?', when my keypad was locked. Fortunately, I'm rid of that piece of crap.
              Burn the land and boil the sea, you can't take the sky from me!

              I like big bots and I cannot lie.

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              • #22
                There's this radio station in my town and their phone number to call in goes something like 391-1873 and the "911" are right by each other. I was calling the station one day to request a song and I guess my phone was really sensitive and picked up on the 911 part. I hung up before I thought anyone had answered and went on my way, which involved blaring the radio in my house with my sister and singing.
                Twenty or so minutes later, we get a knock at the door of my house, and there's a cop in there! It was sooo embarrassing, but he understood.
                "I am the me I choose to be"
                -Sydney Poitier
                I (love) "The Office"
                "This month we're having a special on cardstock."
                -Jim Halpert

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