Butt Dialer Sends SWAT Team to Middle School

Garbled phone call leads wife to believe husband is in danger
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 5, 2011 8:14 AM CST
Butt Dialer Sends SWAT Team to Middle School
'Butt dialing' accidentally got a SWAT team sent to an Illinois school.   (Shutter Stock)

Butt dialing: We all know it’s annoying, but apparently it can also be kinda dangerous. When a husband unknowingly called his wife as he was driving home from his job at a school Monday, “he was listening to music and he had, I don't know, hip-hop … or music like that, where there were lyrics that were gangster-like,” a district official tells the Chicago Tribune. As a result, says the police chief, “the conversation led her to believe there was someone holding him hostage,” and she called 911.

The result: SWAT teams descended on the Illinois middle school. More than 30 officers, armed with automatic weapons, circled the school looking for a gunman, and the all-clear wasn’t sounded until three hours later, when the man was discovered to be perfectly fine and at home. Despite the wasted effort, police don’t appear too concerned: No one will be charged, and the chief says, “It was good practice.” As for the butt dialer? Says the school official, “He's embarrassed.”
(More butt dialing stories.)

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