Posted on 07/24/2002 8:53:05 PM PDT by doug from upland
Radio station DJ's have been playing the tape for years, claiming that it's authentic. But now a purported 911 call reporting an auto accident involving a deer has been exposed as a hoax by 9-1-1 Magazine.
The tape, which has come to be known as "The deer and the dog," features a male caller who claims he struck a deer on the highway. The call deteriorates into screaming and cursing that completely befuddles the dispatcher.
But according to a story at 9-1-1 Magazine's Web site, the tape is a phony, made late at night as a practical joke by an employee of a computer-aided dispatch (CAD) company who was installing the software.
According to the account written by the magazine's editor Randall Larson, the phony call was made in Oct. 1991 just after EAI installed their CAD software at the Cypress Creek EMS comm center, just outside Houston (Tex.). The call was made by Mickey Dawes, who worked for EAI, and was answered by dispatcher Don Hirsch.
According to the magazine, Dawes noticed that Hirsch seemed particularly nervous operating the new software, and decided to make the call to "calm this guy down." Dawes went to another room, called the EMS agency's seven-digit number, and started doing a routine he had pulled when he was an officer in New York state. Dawes said the routine was conceived by co-worker Conrad Hanson.
On the tape, Hirsch handles the caller's vague location and foul language as best he can. He told 9-1-1 Magazine that he was already on edge working with the new computer system, and kept thinking, "I can't believe this is going on!"
Dawes said he hung up and returned to the dispatch floor to find Hirsch still on the phone-he was calling the Houston police to help track down the caller's location. Dawes convinced Hirsch to hang-up, and then had to admit it was all a joke.
Hirsch later paid back the joke by calling Dawes' hotel in the middle of the night to say the CAD computer had crashed.
Far & Wide
In a separate account posted on the Internet, Joe Manz, Jr., confirms the account, saying the call was made by someone named Mickey, who worked for software developer EAI. Manz said he worked at a suburban Houston (Tex.) agency.
"This happened the night before we put the new CAD in service," Manz said. "It was a long day and several things were not going as planned with the installation." He said Mickey and the comm center's manager Frank pulled the joke on a dispatcher named Don.
"They were in the other room on a phone extension watching Don the whole time," Manz said. "If you listen to the master tape you can hear Frank trying his hardest not to laugh as it took place."
After the call everyone had a good laugh, including Don, Manz said. "It was a great release from an otherwise stressful day."
The next morning, "We were all anxious for the Dictaphone tape to be changed so we could play it back. I am proud to have one of the tapes cut from the master. I still listen to it from time to time. Nobody ever realized just how far this tape would have gone, or who else will claim it as their own," Manz said.
"I'm purely amazed at the way that tape has taken off," Hirsch told the magazine. He still works for Cypress Creek, while Dawes now works for Cerulean Technology.
copyright 1999, Allen Media
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JOE DEER CALL --- go down to deer.wav
Reminds me of the time I found out that Santa was not real.
That was a blessing in disguise, however, since I finally got serious and enrolled in college the next day.
I didn't even know she was a Scot!
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