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Original poster

Have you ever phoned 999

242 replies

Woolywolf · 15/08/2021 21:10

If so when/why? I have, once when I panicked a bit after being mugged but luckily haven’t had to any other time

OP posts:
fhammock · 15/08/2021 23:02

Twice.

First time I could hear neighbours having an violent argument.

Second time at work (in a nursery) for a baby who had a seizure and stopped breathing. Most terrifying thing I've ever experienced.

Graphista · 15/08/2021 23:02

@Incywinceyspider you were absolutely right to call for your 14month old I have several older relatives who still suffer from the effects of similar accidents. One died relatively young but several decades after the incident because she had needed several skin grafts and the burns plus the surgeries put too much strain on her heart.

IncessantNameChanger · 15/08/2021 23:02

Yes a few times.

A serious traffic accident.
Someone with a gun by a A road and a handful of times where there is debris in the motorway.

But now I'm more inclined to phone 101 and let them make the call to 999. However that's sometimes been the wrong choice as there was once horses in the road and I was told I should have called 999. I dont know why but I dont feel comfortable as I once did calling the police on 999 as they have such a high threshold of what a emergency is but seeing life or death moments is easier to call for a ambulance

HopeHappy · 15/08/2021 23:02

Twice

Once when there was a massive accident on the opposite carriageway of a motorway I was travelling on and once when I saw a man walking down the central reservation of the motorway! 😱

No idea how he got there or how he was planning on getting across the lanes. It was really busy on the roads too.

ThorIsAGod · 15/08/2021 23:02

Quite a few times as I always seem to come across things on the road! I've had to phone about cows, a sofa, a piece of car, a whole tyre and I think there was another thing too.

People often don't think it's a 999 but it is as it could cause a pile up

jackstini · 15/08/2021 23:03

Yes. A friend of a friend took an overdose age 15

It was over 30 years ago when you had to pay for calling an ambulance if it was self inflicted.

She had a massive go at me after but I don't regret it. She had her DS 7 months later

ThorIsAGod · 15/08/2021 23:03

Oh just thinking I've also phoned when dd was a baby and fitted. That was really distressing

sarahc336 · 15/08/2021 23:05

Yes for my baby who ate peanut butter and turns out she has a peanut allergy 😱 they were amazing on the phone with me whilst I waited for the ambulance I must say x

slug · 15/08/2021 23:06

When 6 week old DD, newly released from SCBU stopped breathing in my arms

And again very late one night when one of the neighbours decided to deal with a fight amongst the youth on the street by wading in waving a machete. By the time I called it in, 5 of my neighbours had already called. It still took half an hour for a response despite one of Europe's largest police stations being 10 minutes walk away

TheGenealogist · 15/08/2021 23:07

Several times.

When I drove past a van on fire on the hard shoulder of the m6, with the driver and passenger trying to empty it.

On the M74 in heavy rain when a driver in front of us hit water and spun into the barrier. He was fine, but shaken.

When little neds set fire to a car outside my student flat.

When I took a bomb threat phone call at work.

HopeHappy · 15/08/2021 23:07

Oh - I forgot one. Called the police when a drunk bloke was being mugged and beaten up by two arseholes that stole his phone.

Police drove straight past the muggers as they drove to the house but didn't see them and couldn't find them again afterwards.

Reb24934 · 15/08/2021 23:07

Once when I was driving through a village and a man I passed collapsed and had a fit - I was trying to call after his escaping dogs and phone 999 and keep an eye on him

Once at work, when a lady collapsed in the carpark

Once when DS split his head open after falling in the garden and made a huge hole in his forehead - DH drove him to A&E in the end but I was in bits, it was horrific

Wincarnis · 15/08/2021 23:11

Yes, first time aged 10 found my Dad dead. Bloke on the other end didn’t know what to say, will never forget it.

A few times in my 30s, for several years lived next door to a couple that regularly tried to kill each other.

More recently, for a car crash on the M62

kirinm · 15/08/2021 23:11

Yes. My toddler was having a seizure.

hiredandsqueak · 15/08/2021 23:15

Yes, once when a neighbour screamed at me to call the fire brigade as her house was on fire. Went round to reassure her as she was sobbing in the garden, looked through the door to see it was a frying pan on fire. Smothered it with a damp teatowel and felt a real prat when two fire engines turned up Blush Should have looked first but never considered that she was being a drama queen.

smashionaltreasure · 15/08/2021 23:15

I should have, once. It was a complete 999 style emergency. It didn't even occur to me. I phoned my dad instead who looked in the phone book and called obscure number and we ended up with the 999 crew. The next day he solemnly noted that we all should have called 999 and we all agreed that would have been the right thing to do. I still don't think it would occur to me.

Scarby9 · 15/08/2021 23:16

I tried to once.
As a secondary school pupil, I witnessed a bad crash when a car hit a cyclist. Several adults rushed to give first aid and yelled at me to call for an ambulance.
This was before mobile phones so I ran to the nearby phonebox. There was (as always) someone in it, but I opened the door and shouted that I needed to use the phone. The person deliberately turned their back on me and carried on talking, so I attempted to pull them out of the phone box. It turned out that they were on the phone to the emergency services, having also seen the accident.

Heidi6824 · 15/08/2021 23:16

Once when there was a tyre on a 70mph a road, ironically on the way to work, where I receive these calls Grin Am a 999/101 police call handler.

LimeSodaTwist · 15/08/2021 23:17

Yes, for an ambulance when my father had a heart attack

SheisMammyof2 · 15/08/2021 23:19

Four times. Three were for an ambulance for a family member and once when I saw a man on the street highly agitated and bleeding heavily from what appeared to be a very serious self inflicted cut on his wrist (he was still holding the knife).

Wroxie · 15/08/2021 23:20

Yes, twice, once when a taxi driver was mugged by an exiting passenger on our cul-de-sac (neighbours say it used to happen semi-regularly when taxi drivers carried more cash, as we are next to a thickly wooded area where muggers can escape easily).

And then another time when a young woman in heels and a going-out dress had a fit on the pavement outside our house (which is nowhere near anywhere you'd normally wear a going-out dress) - I wouldn't have even known she was there had I not popped out with the trash. She stopped fitting before the ambulance arrived but was delirious and in and out of consciousness. She had a small old-style cell phone with her with only one contact in it for someone called "Anton" which I tried to call in case it was someone who could help her - a man answered and immediately shouted WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU and then hung up as soon as I said I'm with a woman who is unconscious near my house and your number was in her phone.

The woman came to a bit when the paramedics arrived and said she was from Bulgaria and was crying really hard and the only thing she kept saying was "I want to go home I made a mistake I want to go home". I said I would call her family, I asked her for any information she could give me and I would call them for her, and would help her get home- buy a ticket for her, whatever she needed- but she just shook her head. I'm not sure if she totally understood what I was saying.

I still think about that woman all the time.

MyNameForToday1980 · 15/08/2021 23:21

Once when DD was struggling to breathe - turned out to be croup, terrifying.

HeartShapedBalloon · 15/08/2021 23:25

A few times. Used to live in a rough town and had lots of drunks passing through my street to get to their estate after a night out. There were regular fights, car vandalism....had a drunk trying to get into our house one night (around 2am!) looking for a woman who didn't live there. Have since moved.

Have dialled twice since Christmas....young adults fighting in my work car park and a theft.

HeartShapedBalloon · 15/08/2021 23:26

And once when DS had a fit and stopped breathing. Fortunately it's not happened again.

Molehillfromamountain · 15/08/2021 23:28

Yes, many times.
Once when I was first on scene to a motorway accident.
Once to a burglary at a neighbours house.
Once to a fire at another neighbours house.
Once when I found another neighbour unconscious in their garden.
Once for DD with suspected meningitis on the advice of 101.
(I realise this sounds like my street has a lot of drama but these incidents were all at different houses over a decade!)