Tuesday, April 07, 2020

So, I Did Something Really Stupid (By Accident!) Today

I accidentally called the emergency services this morning.

What happened was this - I had my phone on while I was doing the ironing. As I forgot to bring my headphones downstairs with me, I played the music directly from the phone's speaker and it was in my back pocket.

After doing that, I went to throw the rubbish out so, still with the tunes coming out of right near my ass, I left my home and then threw the bag in the bin and came back in.

It was at this point I realised that maybe the music was on a little too loud, so I put my hand in my back pocket and started to turn the volume button down.

Next thing I heard was a wailing buzzer kind of sound. I knew it was coming from the phone. I just didn't know what it was.

I pulled the phone out my pocket. I don't know what came first, the realisation that I had somehow dialled '112' or the lady's voice saying I was through to emergency services and how she could be of assistance.

'Sorry!' I yelled at her. She asked me whether I had mis-dialled. 'Yes, sorry!' I exclaimed. Then she said something to me about texts or something that I was so far in the shocked zone to realise what she was going on about. I offered one final word before I forced the disconnection.

'Sorry!'

I feel really bad that I made such a screw up like this. Especially considering what's going on here with so many people needing aid.

Since all that happened, I've looked online to see how it could have happened. It looks like the iPhone has an emergency SOS feature on it. You're meant to press and hold the side button and one of the volume buttons at the same time. That's what must have happened. But, that's not all. A slider button would have popped up on my phone (remember it was still in my pocket, so I didn't see it) and - if it isn't activated after a few seconds - a countdown begins and an alert sounds.  That would explain the buzzer sounding off before I was put through.

What a calamity, and like I said, what poor timing for such a foolish mistake.

No comments:

Post a Comment