The Cops show up at my house the other day..

[Anonymous]

and they say that they traced a 911 phone call, from a cell phone, to our house. My wife asks them "to our neighborhood?", and they say "no, to your house".

I was at the neighbors house, not knowing this is happening, and asking myself..why are all the cops circling our neighborhood?

Do you suppose they traced an old phone number to our house? We are the only ones that have lived there, but I may have had a different cell number at one time. Or, do you think they "traced" the location to our house, via GPS?

I just found this to be kind of strange and wondered if anyone may have some insight.

 

[AFA1CY]

Unless it is a high end cell phone the best they can do is based on repeater triangulation. Not vary accurate.

 

[Scutter01]

There are only two ways to trace a radio source. Either by triangulation (requiring at least two towers, three if you want to pinpoint) or by having the source transmit GPS coordinates. If the phone has a GPS on it, then it may automatically send its coordinates when you dial 911. If it doesn't have a GPS, then unless your phone is within range of multiple towers, I don't see how they could pinpoint it to within, say, 30 yards. A single tower will give them a circular area around 5 miles in diameter. The tower can report signal strength, which would narrow it down to a probable distance from the tower, but still results in a circle.

snopes.com: Cell Phone Location Feature

 

[Srtsi4wd]

Possible that your address came up from a reverse look up on the caller ID. Someone may have used your address w/o you knowing.

I'm assuming that there was no call made from your house, right?

or maybe this:
YouTube - T-Mobile's Butt Dialing commercial w/ Abed from Community (Danny Pudi)

 

[Anonymous]

Funny, butt dialing came up in our conversation. We checked her phone, and no 911 calls were made. Sounds like the most probable would be an old phone number. Thanks for the responses!

 

[mettle]

and they say that they traced a 911 phone call, from a cell phone, to our house. My wife asks them "to our neighborhood?", and they say "no, to your house".

I was at the neighbors house, not knowing this is happening, and asking myself..why are all the cops circling our neighborhood?

Do you suppose they traced an old phone number to our house? We are the only ones that have lived there, but I may have had a different cell number at one time. Or, do you think they "traced" the location to our house, via GPS?

I just found this to be kind of strange and wondered if anyone may have some insight.

I think they were on a fishing expedition....

 

[Frank_N_Stein]

I think they were on a fishing expedition....

OP, do you still have all your guns and your dog?

 

[public servant]

I think they were on a fishing expedition....

Why? Does he have a pond in his backyard?

 

[indytechnerd]

A couple months ago, I was pulling into my garage when my cell rang. It was IMPD dispatch "reopening the line" on a 911 call from my phone. My phone was in the console of my car, closed, charging its battery. I was using my bluetooth headset and hadn't touched it the entire drive home from work. I told them no one had used my phone, there was no record on my call log, and the phone itself was closed and tucked into a cubby hole. They seemed a bit irritated and insistent that they weren't calling me, just "reopening the line", and wanted to "make sure everything was ok".

I have no clue what was going on.

 

[Anonymous]

OP, do you still have all your guns and your dog?

Guns? What guns? I don't know what you're talking about.

 

[Woodsman]

I have had a call on my cell phone from a 911 operator several years. She asked me if she could help and if I was OK?

I had no idea what she was talking about. Just driving down the road minding my own business, no problems, just a random call????

 

[eldirector]

I read an article a while back about 911 "ghost dialing". Something about shorts in the telco calling 911. The phone itself was never used. Cops were responding to vacant homes, empty lots, etc.... I'll see if I can dig it up.

 

[Griffeycom]

FWIW, I accidentally "pocket dialed" 911 with my Blackberry's "Emergency Call button" while it was locked...it's really annoying how easy you can push it on accident on this blackberry, can't wait to get rid of it. Anyway, they called back and I told them I must have hit the button on accident. After they hung up I checked and there was no DIAL OUT number, only the Incoming call.

Point is, just because your phone doesn't have an outgoing call doesn't mean it didn't emergency dial. Like mine did!

 

[mettle]

Why? Does he have a pond in his backyard?

huck ahuck ahuck.... good one.

He didn't make the call, neither did his wife. There were MANY cars in the area, according to his statement. I think they had no idea of the exact location; therefore, they were choosing the 'best' location as to what/where the call came from. .....fishing....

Why the smart comment? Does it bother you that your fellow officers may actually be fishing for information or a glimmer of hope to address the issue? You seem insecure about it... why? Sorry if it bothers you that people are aware that you and your fellow officers may not know what is going on, or may 'feel' like something is wrong and need to 'fish'... sniff sniff

 

[PatMcGroyne]

Blocking all possibility of an accidental "one-push" 911 call:

If that button allows 911 calls and no others, put a drop of super-glue on it before you go to bed, and in the morning it will have "cured" your problem.

FWIW, I accidentally "pocket dialed" 911 with my Blackberry's "Emergency Call button" while it was locked...it's really annoying how easy you can push it on accident on this blackberry, can't wait to get rid of it. Anyway, they called back and I told them I must have hit the button on accident. After they hung up I checked and there was no DIAL OUT number, only the Incoming call.

Point is, just because your phone doesn't have an outgoing call doesn't mean it didn't emergency dial. Like mine did!

 

[bigus_D]

When I was in college police showed up one night saying that we had dialed 911. They wanted to come in and check out our apartment.

Them: "Somebody called 911. Is everyone ok?"
Me: "Nobody called 911, we are fine."
Them: "Can we come in to verify?"
Me: "Nope."
Them: "Who dialed, 911. We want to see everybody in there."
Me: "Nobody dialed 911. I'm going to close the door now, have a nice evening officers."
Them: "Well... somebody dialed 911. Would you dial 911 now so we can verify the system?"
Me: "Sure... hey Brian, call 911."
Brian: dialed 911... "yea... some cops are here, they told us to call 911... what address do you show on your end."
911 opperator: "123 main street"
Brian: "well, this is 456 south street"
Me: "Thanks for stopping by." closed the door

Apparently, the 911 system didn't have the correct address information for the phone lines.... This was back in the 90's when cell phones were a bit less common.

 

[Griffeycom]

If that button allows 911 calls and no others, put a drop of super-glue on it before you go to bed, and in the morning it will have "cured" your problem.

Nope, it's the rolly ball thing on the BB. When it's "locked" you can roll the ball and the menu will come up with "emergency call" accidentally click the ball twice and you've dialed 911!

 

[CountryBoy19]

Nope, it's the rolly ball thing on the BB. When it's "locked" you can roll the ball and the menu will come up with "emergency call" accidentally click the ball twice and you've dialed 911!

Put superglue on it anyways just to be sure you never accidentally dial 911. You should also glue your "9" and your "1" buttons too, just to be sure.

 

[Militarypol21]

I have T-Mobile and on the T-Mobile website you have the option to enter your home address incase of an emergency... Say for instance you have a problem and were unable to speak and the only phone source you have is your cellphone, your address will come up in the 911 database. But if nobody called 911 I don't see how they could have gotten your address. Maybe that was just a "reason" to come check on your house for one reason or another?? I imagine you own a gun like most of us and we all know that's illegal! haha

 

[nawainwright]

when the wife and I were going on vacation this fall, we were up @ 4am to get ready to go to the airport. Our cat was sick at the time and we had to give it medicine (read: risk life and limb shooting liquid down cats throat with syringe). So 4:30 in the morning the cat is flailing on my lap and he manages to somehow unlock my cell AND dial emergency....I see the phone lit up and just close the call. I get a call back from 911 to check in and I explained what happened, I don't think they bought it