The Curious Incident of the Cops in the Night-Time
Topic: Indianapolis Living
Posted: Mon, Apr 10, 2006 
What’s worse than being awakened by pounding at your front door at 3:30 in the morning? Being awakened by pounding at your front door at 3:30 in the morning by two police officers.
As I stumbled down the stairs my emotions turned from sleep-drunk baffled to decidedly disconcerted at the glimpse of two Indy’s finest shining their “why carry a nightstick when you have these?” flashlights in my face. After quickly running through my mental checklist of whether I had done anything arrest-worthy in the past 48 hours, then deciding not, then wondering if one of our unassuming neighbors was running a meth lab or some sort of “Silence of the Lambs” deal in their basement and we were innocently getting caught up in the sting, then deciding not, I opened the door. At this point I was more curious than worried.
As it turns out, they had received a dropped 911 call from our number, and were following up to make sure that no one was gasping their last breath under dangling and bloodied phone cord, Tony Soprano-style. I was quizzed about whether anyone had been using the computer, and perhaps had accidentally dialed 911 via our modem. “Um, well, it’s just me and the dog, and she’s not that smart, and IT’S 3:30 IN THE MORNING!” They were as perplexed as I was, and chalked it up to some sort of weird phone glitch. I had to wonder what my neighbors were thinking, what with the flashing lights on top of the cruisers, the “cchh, cchh” of the police radio, and the questioning session on my front porch. Domestic disturbance? Break in? No one ever asked. They were probably sleeping, being that it was 3:30 in the morning.
So, here’s the weird thing. This happened about six months ago. Isolated incident. No big deal, right? Well, last night it happened AGAIN, like some sort of surreal bad dream Déjà vu. Same time, same loud banging on the front door, same men in blue on my front porch. This time, however, Dave was in town and so could share the adventure with me, and being an old hat at the “cops at the front door” thing, I was less freaked out. We went through the same Q&A dance on the front porch, with equal amounts of shoulder shrugging all around.
Their only advice to us was, “Maybe you should get a new phone number.”
Now, here are my two concerns.
- How did they know that we didn’t have some poor soul tied up in a closet somewhere who had managed to loosen the ropes just enough to reach the phone and dial 911 before we discovered him and knocked him unconscious with the butt end of our Henckels meat cleaver? How do they know we weren’t just acting the bleary-eyed yuppie innocents? They just seemed to take us at our word. Do they have classes for police officers where they learn to ferret out deception? I guess I’m glad that they didn’t start rooting around our house in the middle of the night, but it does give one pause.
- I’m afraid that we’ll become the house who phoned wolf. What if we have a real emergency at 3:30 some morning? What if the police see the address and so, “Oh, that house again. Don’t worry about it. It’s just a phone glitch.” I die with a piece of apple stuck in my throat, all because of their screwed up phone system.
I’m all for this not happening again. It’s never fun to have police officers at your door, particularly for no good reason, and particularly at 3:30 in the morning. I lost a good night’s sleep (that adrenaline kick keeps you awake for a while) and while I do appreciate their taking the time to make sure everything was okay, the whole thing was a waste of their time. I’d rather have them patrolling the streets for bad guys rather than following up on phantom 911 calls. I’m not even sure who I’d call to report on this problem in a way that would lead to a useful resolution. Any ideas?
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Comments
1. Apr 10, 06 09:53 AM | Steph Mineart said:
I wonder if there's a way you can use the non-emergency phone contact for the police during the day, explain what the issue is, and ask them if they could investigate the phantom 911 calls -- was there actually someone on the line saying something, or silence? Is your number actually tied correctly to your address in the emergency phone system?
2. Apr 10, 06 10:14 AM | Jennifer Bortel said:
Another wrinkle: we currently have Vonage (although we didn't the first time this happened, so it's not Vonage's issue) and Vonage gives you an online record of allincoming and outgoing calls. There's no record of a 911 call out or call back, according to them.
3. Apr 11, 06 02:49 PM | John Rutherford said:
Couple comments that will not make you feel any better, I do suggest changing numbers is not a bad idea:
1) I'd read an article bout a month ago about ways that the caller ID system can be faked out. Not easy but apparently some people have done this.
2) More likely I'd guess this is a phone glitch - several years ago we had Voice Mail from Ameritech and three times when I called into it I got into somebody else's voice mail account. Coulda had complete control, changed their greeting, erased their messages, you name it. Ameritech was zero help.
You also might check to se enobody's tapped into your phone line outside.
Fur-reaky !
4. Apr 12, 06 09:08 AM | Dustin said:
Things to ponder: First, what number was 911 called from? You have Vonage, but don't you also maintain a traditional phone line for Dave's computer? Which line was the call made from? I'd guess the modem line since Vonage numbers have difficulty communicating with local 911 numbers. (Although wasn't Vonage required to fix that?)
Anyway, second thing to consider: which phone line did the previous 911 call come from? Presumably your main number was transferred to Vonage, but did you have a second modem line 6 months ago when this first happened? If so, and the call came from there, I'd guess there's a glitch in that line somewhere. Maybe AT&T/SBC could provide a list of dialed numbers for you to check. (Good luck with that!)
Normally changing your number might be more of a hassle than it's worth for two (hopefully isolated) incidents. However, since you only have that phone line for a modem, presumably no one will be calling that number except perhaps mis-informed telemarketers. Go ahead and change it since you won't have to tell everyone you know about your new number.
If the calls came from different numbers each time, or if you change your number and this happens agin, I'd say your problem is with ghosts. Probably the same ghosts that have been opening and closing doors in empty rooms in my house lately, but at least in my case they haven't learned how to use the phone...
5. Apr 12, 06 10:32 AM | Steph Mineart said:
Dustin, I'd say the "ghost" opening and closing your doors is air pressure fluctuations in the house. We used to have that happen all the time in the house I lived in as a kid. When you opened the front door, the bedroom doors would pop open or shut because of the change in pressure. Which was great for scaring the neighbor kids.
6. Apr 13, 06 09:13 AM | Michael Packer said:
Can air pressure turn on a radio? Because that happened to me the other day.
7. Apr 14, 06 12:43 PM | bmundy said:
I think that random infrared signals sometimes get bounced into our houses or maybe emitted from remote controls as their batteries die. Or maybe I'm just trying too hard to explain away the spooks that live in my house...
8. May 4, 06 11:01 AM | Reporter Abe Aamidor of The Star said:
Jennifer, et al - you'll recall I interviewed you a couple of years ago about food blogs. The Star is doing a story on where people go to dine AND smoke, not including bars, taverns or night clubs. We're especially interested in groups of people that would regularly meet or gather, and some of the people smoke. Do you know of any places where groups can go to smoke? For example, there are retirees who would often meet for breakfast on a regular basis, but may have to move because of smoking bans.
If you can recommend any places that would be great.
Abe Aamidor
444-6472
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