Accidental 'Butt Dial' Sends SWAT Team Into Middle School

Chicago-area police may be feeling a bit silly after storming a middle school Monday in what they thought was a hostage situation. The real culprit: A school employee's cell phone.

On his drive home from school, an Illinois man accidentally "butt dialed" his wife on his touch screen phone, according to ABC News. His wife mistook the muffled noises she heard as a school shooting situation, and dialed 911.

The man's boss, Mark Friedman, told ABC:

"He had the radio up and was listening to lyrics of hip-hop music or something like that, and she heard bits and pieces of it and misinterpreted the lyrics to think that he was in trouble."

The kicker came when police responded accordingly, sending 30 men in bulletproof vests with automatic weapons to the Winnetka school. The middle school's 500 students had already left for the day, but the two-hour drill nevertheless shook up the surrounding neighborhood.

The NY Daily News reported:

Crowds of worried residents gathered near the school to watch as SWAT members established a security perimeter, while others clad in bulletproof vests, helmets and face shields swept classrooms inside the building.

Read more about the event at ABC News.

Comments

[Shana Donohue]

10:01 AM on 01/09/2011

My friend butt-dialed the Iliad once. No joke.
http://zerosumruler.wordpress.com/

[bibimimi]

03:53 PM on 01/07/2011

butt dialing will soon make texting look quaint.

[Artos]

08:38 AM on 01/07/2011

It's a good thing he didn't fart. Imagine what she might have thought then. That the school had been blown up probably.

[jim9034]

08:12 AM on 01/07/2011

Someone saw on plain box laying on a ramp off a highway here in Maryland, so they sent out the bomb squad and shut down the highway. The terrorists are winning this game, they are disrupting our lives and the most stupid of us fall for it hook, line and sinker. The rest are along for the ride.

[Donns]

07:05 AM on 01/07/2011

The cops have no reason to feel badly about their reaction, they did the correct thing. The twit with the phone should have it taken away from him.

[noladebby]

05:55 AM on 01/07/2011

LOL!!!!

[William Blomberg]

05:49 AM on 01/07/2011

I think people need to sit in at there local 911 center for a couple of hours, and listen to all the butt calls that come in. Listen to what we have to listen to, and try to determine if what you are listening to is just an accidental dial, or an actual real emergency, all within less then a minute while trying to track down the location of the cell phone. I think they did a fantastic job on finding out where the call was coming from as quickly as they did (though, I will bet that they probably had history on the cell number and it had been attached to the school location).

In actual hostage and/or active shooter situations, seconds count. Someone asked prior why the school wasn't called. I will bet that during this time that people were trying to call into the school. Lots of things happen all at once with many different people performing different jobs, all who have the safety and the well being of the citizens in mind (and not just to go shoot/kill people like some here have inferred).

[Trey Blue]

08:39 AM on 01/07/2011

The guy butt-dialed his wife, not 911. She called 911 and sent them to the school.

[William Blomberg]

09:06 AM on 01/07/2011

I think the statements made still stand, though some of the information given I misread and some things said were in error. However, butt calls are still an issue for emergency services, be they to us directly, or indirectly (ie via the wife).

It's like the ton of calls we get from deactivated phones that are given to kids to play with. Parents believe that since the phone no longer has service that it is safe for the little ones to toy with, unaware that those phones still can, and do call 911. Many models having emergency features that are not deactivated because they are built into the phones (not from the carrier service) so they still make 911 calls. As a matter of fact, I just took 3 of these calls within the last minute from a child playing on a phone.

So, yes. I made an error on a fine point. However, it still doesn't change the fact that butt calls will occur and people will make mistakes in understanding what they are hearing on the other end of the phone connection. Let's not hold it against them for wanting to make sure that their loved ones are safe.

[KennebunkportIndependent]

05:35 AM on 01/07/2011

Why didn't the police confirm a possible incident by contacting the school?  It seems a bit heavy handed.  Then again, it is a Chicago area school.  It seems they need to review their crisis procedures with school officials.  

[Gunfighter]

07:39 AM on 01/07/2011

Calling the school office doesn't mean that nothing is happening in the school.

[MMRDO]

01:39 AM on 01/08/2011

How do you know who is answering the phone?

[noway lv]

02:27 AM on 01/07/2011

At least SWAT got a little exercise right?

[temenos]

02:09 AM on 01/07/2011

They even wrote a song about it.:)

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4sen0_bob-crosby-big-noise-from-winnetka_music

[armchairsubversiveDOTorg]

01:44 AM on 01/07/2011

That's my old junior high! That town, Winnetka, is populated with rich housewives with nothing to do all day, paranoid that the Muslims are coming for their Mercedes.

[ackezzy]

07:15 PM on 01/09/2011

yea im suprised someone in winnetka was listening to hip-hop let alone a principal

[lightist]

01:41 AM on 01/07/2011

Now that's really using your head.

[MMRDO]

01:40 AM on 01/07/2011

This same story is in the Chicago section.

Look at the bright side, if there had been an actually hostage situation, these guys had their observation set up fast.

[superjules]

01:24 AM on 01/07/2011

Way to stay on top of things. I read this on Gawker days ago.

[jcarterla]

01:18 AM on 01/07/2011

Did anyone think to call the school first?

[timotay89]

02:23 AM on 01/07/2011

They have no way of knowing if they'd talk to an worker at the school or a hostage taker or someone. Plus, if they do get someone who works there, there's no way to know if the person is being honest or if they are being threatened.

I can't imagine they'd rather have this headline than "children held hostage, police don't respond"

[SolarPowerGuy]

04:16 AM on 01/07/2011

My wife is a public school teacher. Ever since Columbine, they've been preparing for the possibility of campus violence, even though it is extremely rare. It's right up there with earthquake and fire drills.

There are procedures in place which allow the teachers to communicate with each other to indicate that they are under duress, without letting any bystanders know. Shouldn't similar procedures exist for talking between school administrators and the police department?