What are the craziest things 911 operators have ever heard? Is it the sounds of someone
being murdered? Or perhaps the eerie voice of a ghost on the other line. The people who answer
the phones when 911 is called are tasked with getting people the help they need. However,
sometimes people just can’t be helped. We’re going to tell you about the most
insane 911 calls ever made. Some will make you laugh because of how ridiculous they are;
others will make you cringe at how creepy some people can be.
Just as a disclaimer, not every part of an operator's conversation with a caller
is released to the public. In sensitive situations, large parts can be redacted.
But we will use what we have to reconstruct these conversations for you in this video.
What you are about to witness are the scariest, funniest, and most insane 911 calls ever made.
Let’s start with a few lighthearted 911 calls
before ramping it up to the more gruesome and terrifying stuff.
It was a light night shift; the caller had just gotten off of work. As he drove home,
he looked into the hills of the surrounding area. A faint glow appeared to be coming from the
landscape in front of him. Startled, the driver pulled out his phone and immediately dialed 911.
“911, what’s the nature of your emergency?” the operator asked.
“Hi, yes, I’m driving home from work, and the hills in front of me are on fire.
Have you received any calls or sent the fire department out yet?” asked the man.
There was a slight pause as the operator checked the dispatch reports that had
been given in the last few minutes. “We have no calls about a fire, sir. Where are you located?”
The driver told the operator exactly where he was looking. But before he could finish what he was
saying, the blaze seemed to increase tenfold. “Oh my god!” the man on the phone screamed. “How is
no one seeing this? The fire is getting bigger. The whole top of the mountain is on fire now!”
“Sir, please stay calm. We are sending someone out to your location now,” responded the operator,
making sure to keep their voice level. “If you are still driving,
I’m going to ask you to pull over to the side of the road.”
“Okay, but I can’t believe what I’m seeing!” the man exclaimed. “It is so bright;
the fire must be—” The man stopped speaking for a second. “Oh. Oh god,” he said quietly.
“I am so embarrassed. There is no fire; it’s just the sun rising over the hill. I just got
off work and am not normally out this late. I am so, so sorry for wasting your time.”
The operator listened intently. “It’s fine, sir. I will cancel the dispatch;
thank you for calling, and have a good morning.” The operator hung up.
This mistaken caller confused the rising sun with a blazing inferno. However,
that wasn’t the only time someone called 911 because they mistook a celestial body
for something it wasn’t. Take this 911 call, for example.
One British man was standing on his lawn looking at the night sky when a bright circular object
appeared above him. He scrambled for his phone and called 911. “I need to report a UFO!” the
man frantically said to the operator. “Look up into the sky! I am grabbing my camera and
heading back out, but I just wanted to let the authorities know aliens might be invading us.”
Before the operator could respond, the man hung. They traced the call back to an elderly gentleman
in town. They were about to dispatch a squad car to his address just to check on him when
the line lit up, signaling an incoming call. The operator picked up and asked how they could help.
“Hi, I just called about a UFO,” said a familiar voice on the other line. “I just
wanted to call to let you know everything is fine. I don’t know how to say this,
but… it was just the moon. Sorry to have wasted your time.”
These light-hearted stories of mistaking one object for another are fun to hear.
But the job of an operator can also be incredibly stressful and terrifying.
These next several 911 calls will send chills down your spine.
One operator in a small town was connected to an old woman who called 911 a few times a week to
ask for help. Her husband had just recently passed away, and she needed help with basic
things like turning up the thermostat or boiling water for tea. The operator would do their best
to help her and would even send a squad over on quiet days to lend her some assistance.
Over time the elderly woman began to develop dementia. She would call 911 more and more
frequently. She began to believe that when she called the operator for help,
it was really her deceased husband she was talking to. Then something weird happened.
“Hi, Mrs. Jones,” said the operator when he picked up the phone. He
recognized the number of the other line. “How can I help you today?”
“You need to come home. I need your help; please come home,” the old woman responded.
“I will send someone out to help you, Mrs. Jones; just remain calm, and an officer will be there
in a few minutes.” The operator dispatched one of the local law enforcement officers.
He apologized that they’d have to head to the house yet again. It was a slow day,
so the officer said it was no trouble. That was until he got to the house.
When the officer knocked on the door, and no one responded, he let himself in to check on
the old woman. He found her lying dead in her bed, she had passed away relatively recently,
but it had been long enough for rigor mortis to set in. However,
the operator had talked to the old woman less than an hour before. The officer explained this
strange discrepancy by stating that the room was only around 50 degrees when he walked in,
which led to the body becoming stiff more quickly. But the whole thing was still unsettling.
A few days went by when the operator received a call. He reached for the phone,
and his hand froze in midair. He recognized the number of the caller. It was from the
old woman’s house. He tentatively picked up the phone and placed it to his ear.
“911, what’s the nature of your emergency?” he said with a shaky voice.
“I need your help. Please come home and help me,” the old woman’s voice said then the line
went dead. The operator dispatched officers to the house, but no one was there. The operator
would receive the same call from the woman periodically for the next year. Even after the
house was vandalized and eventually burned down, the ghost calls kept coming in. Law enforcement
contacted the phone company to see if there was an explanation. They confirmed that the line at the
house had been disconnected and that there was no other address using that phone number at the time.
As creepy as the old woman ghost calling 911 is,
that is nothing compared to what this next operator went through on one of their calls.
It was a cold winter night. The wind was howling, causing the temperature
to plummet well below freezing. On these types of nights, calls to the operator
were typically nonexistent as no one wanted to go outside. Around 3:00 a.m., a call came in.
“911, what’s the nature of your emergency?” the operator asked.
“I need help! Please! My sister is possessed by a demon,” the voice on
the other line said frantically. “She tried to cut my heart out while I was sleeping,
and I just barely got away. I locked myself in the bathroom, but it’s trying to break in!”
“Sir, I’m going to need you to calm down and tell me exactly what is going on,” the
operator responded. They were trying to figure out what was actually happening.
“My sister is possessed by a demon!” the caller screamed. “Please, you have to send help.”
“Okay, I am sending help, but I need to know if you need the police, an ambulance,
or both,” the operator said. As they listened for a response,
they could hear what sounded like nails scratching against wood and someone banging on a door.
“Please,” whispered the man on the phone. “There really is a demon in my sister’s body. I’ve
been battling it for days. It got free from the chains—.” Before he could finish his explanation,
the man was cut off by a guttural voice that started taunting him from the other side of
the bathroom door. The creature began speaking in a language that the operator couldn’t understand,
but with each demonic phrase that it spat out, it sounded like the creature was gurgling blood.
The operator stayed on the line with the caller until police arrived at the house. The operator
listened as police crashed through the front door. The creature let out an otherworldly screech, and
then the line went dead. The operator was shaking. Sitting next to him was his supervisor, who had
been called to listen in when the strange screams and voices could be heard on the other line. His
face was pale; he stared far off in the distance, unable to believe what he had just heard.
When their shift ended, the operator and his boss called police headquarters to ask what
they had found at the house. The answer they received would haunt their nightmares for the
rest of their lives. When the police arrived, they found the sister in bloody handcuffs.
Her whole body was covered in scratches. One of her eyes had popped a blood vessel
and was bright red. Her skin was as white as snow, and her clothing torn to shreds.
The sister was restrained and brought to a psychiatric hospital for evaluation. The
brother had not been lying about what she had been trying to do. EMTs found that the brother
had deep lacerations on his chest as if someone was literally trying to dig out his heart. After
that, the case went cold. The operator never found out what happened to the brother or the
sister. However, he can still hear the demonic voice from the other line even to this day.
Not all terrifying 911 calls are supernatural in nature.
Some of the most insane calls come from people who have done really bad things.
One operator had the misfortune of talking to Charles Hendricks Foster when he called,
threatening to kill his wife.
“911, do you need the police, fire department, or ambulance?” the operator asked.
“Um, yes ma’am. This is very serious. I’m going to stab my wife in the chest. She is driving me
crazy and is sitting right next to me. This is very serious,” stammered Charles Foster.
“Sir, please calm down and explain exactly what’s happening. It is hard to hear you.
Can you put yourself on speaker phone?” the operator asked. While she conversed
with Foster, she informed the police that they needed to get to his house
as fast as possible. Charles Foster’s wife may have been in grave danger.
“I need you to send the police right away. This is
very serious. If the police don’t get here soon, I’m going to stab my wife;
she is driving me crazy,” Charles Foster continued. He hung up the phone.
The operator sat in her seat, stunned at what she had heard. Then the light signaling an
incoming call lit up. The operator quickly picked up as she recognized it was Charles Foster again.
“This is very serious,” he said again. “I am about ready to kill
my wife. This is not a joke; I need you to shut up and listen to me.”
The operator continued to stall for time as the police raced to Foster’s home. She
asked him if he had been drinking or was on drugs. He answered that he hadn’t been
drinking or using drugs. He said he was just crazy and needed to go to jail for
thinking about murdering his wife. The operator asked him to repeat and spell
his name to keep him busy. Foster showed signs of agitation. He shouted and cursed
but spelled his name anyways. Each question from the operator was a ploy to keep him busy.
“I want to hurt my wife; I don’t want to hurt anyone else!” Foster exclaimed.
The operator told him she heard what he was saying and told him the police were
on their way. Foster said that was good. She then convinced Charles Foster to step
out of the house and wait for the police outside where they could talk. He agreed
and went outside. When police arrived on the scene, they arrested Charles Foster
on his lawn and burst into the house. They found Foster’s wife stabbed in the chest.
The cops rushed over to her and found that she was still breathing. Paramedics were brought
in and were able to stabilize Foster’s wife. She was rushed to the hospital,
where she recovered from the stab wounds in her chest.
This next 911 call may be the saddest and most tragic thing
you’ve ever heard. It will be hard to listen to, so prepare yourself.
In 2012, Jake Evans called Texas law enforcement to report a crime that
he had committed. When the operator picked up,
they had no idea that they would be dealing with a tragedy that would shock the nation.
The voice on the other line was that of a detached teenager. Jake Evans showed no signs of panic
or remorse. He explained in a monotone voice exactly what he had done and why he was calling.
“Hi, I am calling to report a murder I committed. I lured my sister out of her
room by telling her that mother wanted to speak to her. When she came out,
I shot her multiple times. She fell down the stairs screaming.”
The operator couldn’t believe what they were hearing. At first, it seemed like a prank,
but as Jake continued to speak, the tone of his voice and the grisly details became
all too real. He explained that after he shot his sister, he went to the kitchen
and shot his mother. After that, he picked up the phone and dialed 911.
Jake continued explaining what had occurred to the operator. “I wasn’t even really angry with them;
it just kind of happened. I’ve been kind of planning on killing for a while now.” The tone
of his voice never changed as he continued talking to the operator. “I know what I did
was wrong, but I was going to kill someone; it could have been anyone. I know I’m evil,
and I understand that the police will want to hurt me when they get here.”
The operator kept Jake talking until law enforcement arrived and arrested him. They
found the bodies of his sister and mother shot to death in the house. The events appeared to
have unfolded exactly how Jake described them. When the operator got off the phone,
they needed to step out for a very long time.
This is a good place to take a breather and thank all of the people who answer
911 calls and get people the help or assistance they need. Operators deal
with extremely tense situations and have to remain level-headed while talking to
frantic and sometimes insane people. Before we dive back into the heavy stuff, let’s hear
some of the crazier calls 911 operators have received that don’t end in tragedy.
It can be difficult to get away with robbery in today’s day and age. However,
one burglar in Ohio pretty much caught himself. The man broke into someone’s
home and started stealing whatever he could get his hands on. By in a stroke of bad luck,
the burglar managed to butt dial 911 while still in the house. The call went something like this.
“911, what’s your emergency? The operator received no response but could hear stuff
being moved in the background. “Hello? Is there anyone there?” they asked again but
got no response. As protocol dictated, the operator dispatched a squad car to
the house. When the burglar saw the lights flashing outside, he ran and hid in a closet.
The police officers entered the house and began to look around. The burglar remained silent,
hoping that the police would find nothing out of the ordinary and just leave. Then,
his phone started beeping in his pocket. The low battery alert had gone off. The police heard the
noise and ordered whoever was hiding in the closet to step out with their arms raised.
The burglar had no other choice. He sighed and came out with his arms up.
The police arrested him and confiscated the phone that had given him away. This
was a textbook example of what not to do when trying to rob a house.
Another burglar knowingly called 911 while he was robbing a house.
You won’t believe what led him to turn himself in.
A Romanian man needed some extra cash, so he decided to burgle a house in his town. As he
rummaged through the rooms, he began hearing sounds. The floorboards creaked, and something
seemed to be scratching from inside the walls. The burglar became more and more freaked out.
He continued to look around, trying to find the most valuable things to steal, when he heard a
terrible hissing and shrieking sound. He was so scared that he called 112, the equivalent of 911
in the United States. The operator picked up and asked what the nature of his call was. The man
explained he was in someone else's house and he was sure that there was something otherworldly
in there with him. He was almost positive it was some sort of ghost or demon, and he needed help.
This was an odd request, but the police were dispatched. When they entered the home,
they found the robber with his flashlight darting back and forth across the room. He explained what
he was doing in a house that wasn’t his and was arrested. When the police searched the home,
they didn’t find any ghosts or paranormal entities. Instead, they found a cat. The
robber called 112 in terror because a cat had been meandering around the house making noises.
Sometimes you try and be a good neighbor but do more harm than good. Everyone makes mistakes,
including one woman from Canada who called 911 when she thought her neighbor was in distress.
It had been a quiet night just like any other when the woman heard yelling coming from the
apartment next door. Worried that her neighbor was in danger, she called the authorities.
“What is the nature of your emergency? Do you need the police, fire department,
or medical assistance?” the operator asked.
“Hi, send help quick! It sounds like my neighbor is in trouble. They are yelling and screaming,
I think someone might have broken in, or they are in a fight,” the woman said.
“Please stay on the line. I am dispatching the police,” the operator told her. When
the police arrived, they knocked on the door. After a few moments,
a man opened it. They questioned him about the yelling and loud noises. He
offered for the officers to come inside his apartment so they could speak privately.
After a short conversation, the police officers left the apartment. The man closed the door behind
them. The officers looked at one another and began to laugh. They stifled their giggles and proceeded
out of the apartment building. Apparently, there was no break-in. The man wasn’t in any danger;
he was just a little constipated and was having a difficult time going to the bathroom.
To be fair, it’s better to be safe than sorry. Law
enforcement encourages you to contact them if you think something is wrong,
even if it only turns out to be your neighbor having a tough time on the toilet.
If you call the police because someone has broken into your house, it might be a good idea to do
a quick sweep to make sure your house is the way you want it when law enforcement arrives.
One man in Lincoln, Nebraska, called the authorities when he came home to find that
his house had been broken into. He discovered that one of his favorite hookah pipes had been stolen,
and he was furious. Without giving it much thought, he called 911 and had the police
come so he could file a report. Unfortunately, he forgot to do a little cleaning up beforehand.
When the police arrived at the man’s address and entered his house,
they immediately spotted illegal marijuana plants growing in the house. They arrested
the man for growing drugs in his domicile, even if it had been burgled by someone else. In one day,
the man had lost his favorite pipe, his pot plants, and his freedom.
Some 911 calls are just plain tragic. Sometimes there is nothing anyone can do, and the operator
has to stay on the line while the person who called slips right through their fingers.
Debra Stevens was driving her car delivering newspapers on her regular route when inclement
weather caused a flash flood. She took a detour to try and finish her deliveries,
but things went from bad to worse really quickly. While traveling down a sideroad,
water levels began to rise. Debra didn’t know exactly where she was,
but she knew she was in big trouble. She pulled out her cell phone and called 911.
“Yes, my name is Debra Stevens, and my car is stuck in a flash flood. The water is rising,
and I can’t get out. I don’t know where I am; please, you have to save me.”
The operator tried to help her calm down, but the situation was dire.
Without knowing where Debra was, they couldn’t send rescue units to help her.
As the operator tried to figure out the car's location, Debra became hysterical.
“The water is rising in my car. I’m scared. I don’t want to die. Please help me,” Debra
screamed. The operator frantically tried to dispatch the fire department to the area around
Debra’s normal paper route to try and locate her. However, the entire area had been flooded,
and most roads were impassible. The operator stayed on the phone as long as they could,
but as Debra yelled that the water was rising above her head, the line went dead.
About an hour after Debra called for help, the fire department located her car,
which was now completely submerged underwater. They pried the doors
open only to find Debra’s drowned body stuck inside. They desperately tried to revive her
but to no avail. The flash flood had consumed her car and taken her life.
Debra’s story isn’t the only tragedy that happened in a car while a 911 operator was on the phone.
Chris Lasterlla made a 50-second call to 911 as the car he was in with his sister, brother-in-law,
and niece sped down the freeway. The car’s accelerator had jammed, and there was no way
to slow it down. The car reached its top speed and careened down the road as Chris pleaded for help.
“Please send help,” Chris said to the operator. “We are out of control
and can’t stop; the odometer says we are going 120 miles per hour.”
“Okay, Chris, I am sending the police and ambulance toward your location. Try and
avoid any major intersections and pull off the road if you think it’s safe.” But as
the operator tried to keep everyone calm, screams could be heard over the receiver.
“Oh god, we’re going to hit that car!” a voice yelled. “Hold on!” There was a gutwrenching sound
of twisting metal and the screams of people inside the car before the line went dead. The
operator connected to the first responders that had been dispatched to find out what happened.
The out-of-control Lexus had entered an intersection and hit another car. This sent
the vehicle with Chris and his family inside it through a fence and over an embankment. When first
responders arrived on the scene, the car was in flames. The fire department put out the inferno
and pried the doors off the mangled car. All four people inside died from blunt force trauma. The
911 operator was the last person to hear their screams before they were silenced forever.
Again, we just want to take this opportunity to thank all 911 operators, first responders,
and anyone else who dedicates their lives to helping others. Whenever they start their shift,
they never know what the day will have in store for them. These stories were just a
taste of what these heroic people deal with every day at their jobs.
Now watch “What Actually Happens When You Call
911?” Or check out “Most Insane Plan To Escape The Death Row.”