Mystery phone dialing 911

[Guest]

From Yahoo odd news

WATERLOO, Iowa - A rogue cell phone is not accepting calls, but it sure likes to dial 911 operators in eastern Iowa.

Operators at the Black Hawk County Consolidated Communications Center said that they received about 400 calls from the same cell phone last week and that no one seems to be on the other line.

"That's it right now," said Dispatcher Chuck Hosier, as a phone rang in the background. "It will ring in, and it's an open line. Sometimes it rings in and drops off."

Officials can't locate the phone but have figured out that it is an old line not currently associated with a cell phone provider. Such phones, once charged up, can still place 911 calls under Federal Communications Commission rules set in 1994.

The cell phone can't receive calls, and emergency workers haven't been able to track the owner through service records, either.

"With this, we are pretty helpless," said Judy Flores, the center's administrative supervisor.

Officials are suspicious that it could be a prank — but they say it's not funny and potentially dangerous.

Until the source of the calls is found or they stop, dispatchers still have to answer every call just in case someone is on the line with an emergency.

[IzzyEng4 427]

When I used to dispatch at CSP, we would get the same cell phone calling 911 and could not call it back. Usually you can tell on the ALI / ANI screen that its a 911 only phone if it had 911 for the area code or it stated "NO ANI INFORMATION AVAILABLE". If I remember correctly there was a lot of old cell phones still out there that when you have the "9" key activated for a quick call for 911, you actually didn't know the phone was being dialed (they have to have some sort of warning now on modern cell phones). That was usually the problem since most accidental 911 calls were "fanny calls" (people sitting on their phones without the key pad lock on.