911 Hug Call

Operator: "911 what is your emergency?"

Little boy: "I need a hug!"

While that is not exactly how this went down, it was almost that cute and for the most part its not very far off. In early November a young boy, who is only allowed to have a deactivated cell phone, decided to play around with the various features that don't require activation. Well, perhaps an oversight by the parents, one such feature on all deactivated phones is the ability to still call emergency services. Whether on accident or on purpose that is exactly what this little boy did. However, unlike the hypothetical script above, he hung up on the operator which still requires the dispatch of an officer to investigate.

Cashing in on that hug request

Within minutes Sheriff Deputy Pracht from Hillsborough County, Florida was on the scene knocking on the door of the family home. Seeing mom emerge from around the corner he asked, "is this your home?" to which the confused woman answered, "yeah". The officer continued his questions with "everything ok?" explaining that he was responding to a 911 call from the residence. Immediately putting the pieces together she lets out a frustrated grunt and asks the Sheriff to speak with her son, who is most likely to blame for the confusion.

As the young man responds to his mothers beckoning she asks, "did you call this gentleman?" to which he replies, "well I wanted to give him a hug." This is either the most creative excuse to potentially minimize punishment for poor judgement or its the sweetest, most genuine example of misusing emergency services ever captured. The truth is probably somewhere in-between but officer Practht does not let the chance to have a teaching moment pass by. Instead he gives the desired hug and explains that 911 is only for emergencies and that the little boy is only to use it if he or someone he knows needs help. The young man seemed to accept this for future reference and the warmhearted moment came to an end.

But what do you think? Should we have a emergency hug resource of some kind? It seems like an important issue worth considering. After all, hugs are in some ways just another type of emergency care. Leave a comment with your thoughts on this story and these questions.

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