You know that blond joke where the blond is asked to dial 911 and she says, “What’s the number?” Believe it or not, that blond is not alone in her ignorance. Stupid people pose a danger to us all. In the following experience, one person’s stupidity cost an innocent their life.
A few years ago, I was working at a retail electronics chain. (Later on I will be writing about stupidities in their upper management. So corporate people – stay tuned.) One day a customer comes in. Now, this was one of the most ignorant, hillbilly/hick/redneck persons that you could ever meet. And believe me, I have met some bad ones. Anyway, he comes in yelling, cursing, shaking his fist in the air, etc. After letting him vent for awhile, I finally managed to calm him down enough to tell me what in the world happened. He was infuriated because of a car wreck the night before that happened in front of his house. He rushed outside to help, but the driver was injured badly. He took out the cell phone that I sold to him two days prior and called 911. Unfortunately, he could not get through. He tried and tried, only to be met every time with a message telling him to check the number and try the call again. The driver of the car died at the scene.
He was upset because the phone did not work to call 911, and a person died because of it. I felt terrible about what happened, but just couldn't imagine the phone being defective in that way. So I asked him to show me on the phone what he did when calling for help. His reply, “I went just like this. I opened it and I dialed 817-911 and it wouldn't work!”
At this point, all my employees and customers that had gathered around slowly turned and walked away leaving me by myself to explain to this person, who was now in tears, why 911 did not pick up.