911 Emergency Calls

About

911 Emergency Calls are audio recordings of phone calls made to the 9-1-1 emergency telephone number in United States. Due to their easy accessibility, as they're recognized as public records in many states, many audio recordings of emergency calls have been leaked online and subsequently gone viral since the advents of online file sharing in the early 2000s.

Origin

On July 1st, 1999, the Phoenix New Times^[4] published an article about a collection of humorous 911 call anecdotes titled Did You Say An Alligator? published by Tolleson, Arizona emergency operator Beth Compton. In June 2001, Leland Gregory's collection of offbeat 911 phone call transcripts were published as a book titled What's The Number For 911 Again?. In the early 2000s, funny or offbeat 911 emergency calls were mostly spread via message boards in the form of transcripts, though some audio recordings were occasionally played on-air by radio jockeys. On February 10th, 2003, Neoseeker^[2] forums member Weatherlover submitted a thread containing transcripts of humorous 911 calls from What's the Number for 911 Again?.

9-1-1 Emergency Hotline

The first known national emergency telephone number (9-9-9) was introduced by the British government in 1937. Three decades later, the U.S. national hotline for all emergencies (9-1-1) was set up and introduced by AT&T in 1968, with the first call placed by Alabama Speaker of the House Ranking Fite on February 16th, 1968.^[1]

Spread

On April 1st, 2005, a transcript of a 9-1-1 call from a woman complaining about poor customer service she received at a Burger King fast food restaurant was posted to the conservative web forum Free Republic.^[3] With the advent of online streaming video services, Internet users were soon able to upload 9-1-1 call recordings on the web. On September 2nd, 2006, a recording of the Burger King 9-1-1 call was uploaded to YouTube (shown below, left), which received more than 220,000 views and 960 comments in the next seven years. On February 9th, 2007, YouTuber zezima66 uploaded an advertisement for the Washington state lottery, which featured a parody 9-1-1 call in which a woman assaults a man with a winning lottery ticket (shown below, right). Within seven years, the video garnered upwards of 3.3 million views and 6,100 comments.

On March 9th, YouTuber betahat published a local news report featuring a 9-1-1 call from a man complaining of having an erection last for over four days after consuming the erectile dysfunction medication Viagra (shown below, left). In the next seven years, the video accumulated more than 1.27 million views and 2,300 comments. On May 12th, YouTuber Chase Nunes uploaded a local news segment broadcasting a 9-1-1 call from a police officer who thought he had overdosed on marijuana (shown below, right), gaining over 3.39 million views and 4,900 comments in the first six years.

On May 26th, 2008, YouTuber skidoomxz550x uploaded a prank 9-1-1 call by a man claiming to have been hit by a car and attacked by a dog (shown below, left). In the following five years, the video garnered upwards of 1.31 million views and 1,800 comments. On April 2nd, 2009, YouTuber krymz posted a 9-1-1 call from a woman having difficulties unlocking her car door (shown below, right), which received over 900,000 views and 2,500 comments in the first five years.

On May 7th, 2009, YouTuber maverickzyn uploaded a clip from a local news report about a 17-year-old girl who was arrested for blurting the word "fuck" while making a 9-1-1 call regarding her sick father (shown below, left). Within five years, the video accumulated more than 1.08 million views and 11,900 comments. On April 24th, 2010, YouTuber noodl34u posted a 9-1-1 call from a young child asking for help with his math homework (shown below, right), receiving upwards of 2.04 million views and 8,400 comments in the next four years.

On January 5th, 2012, YouTuber Neuroticy2 posted a news report about a mother who asked 9-1-1 for permission prior to shooting an intruder with a shotgun (shown below, left). In the following two years, the video garnered more than 2.09 million views and 19,00 comments. On May 7th, YouTuber AmazingLife247 uploaded a recording of Ohio resident Charles Ramsey's 9-1-1 call placed after he rescued kidnap victim Amanda Berry (shown below, right), which gained over 1.81 million views and 3,600 comments in the first three months.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References