Terrifying: Man Calls 911, Gets Transferred to Voicemail

Late last week, four intruders broke into a Port Richey home where they proceeded to demand money and prescription drugs (WHERE THE HELL DO YOU KEEP YOUR GOOD IBUPROFEN???). In the ensuing chaos, the homeowner called 911 to report that he had been robbed and that two female residents had been physically harmed. Unfortunately, for the victim the call was answered by the fire department side and instead of just sending out deputies, the man was transferred to the police department. Or at least he thought he was being transferred to the police department. What he got instead was voicemail.

In the above video, you can hear how terrified everyone in the house is, with screams filling the background. When the intruders came back for more (it’s not clear in the news report if they had ever left?), the homeowner shot one of them. The police arrived soon after.

While it boggles the mind that there’s two distinct parts to 911 (from my experience, representatives from every emergency service get sent when you call 911) it’s even more frightening to know that an administrative fuckup can lead to someone who’s in danger to be transferred to voicemail in an emergency situation. The homeowner and his family are fortunately okay, and three of the intruders (including the one who had been shot) have been arrested. Authorities say that the transfer did not slow down response time but a timeline shows that officers were dispatched more than three and a half minutes later.

Emergency services say that they’re looking into how to avoid this problem in the future, but FOX Tampa Bay states that no one is sure exactly what the steps to correcting this are.