Kids Dialing Old Cellphones Calling South Dakota 911 Centers

ABERDEEN, S.D. (AP) — Teaching kids how to dial 911 is up there with tying their shoes. But some emergency dispatchers are getting bogus calls from children on old cellphones.

John McQuillen with the Brown County dispatch center in Aberdeen says it's happening a few times a month. And occasionally one child will dial 911 again and again.

He tells the Aberdeen American News that parents should just take the battery out of the phone.

McQuillen says some of the calls are made unknowingly by young children, while others are placed by kids old enough to know what they're doing. He says some kids have been downright snotty.

If dispatchers can decipher the location of a 911 cellphone call, an officer will be dispatched to make sure nothing is wrong.

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