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Crime & Safety

Police Log: Phone Dials 911 By Itself -- No Trick, And No Treat For Cops

Notable incidents encountered Oct. 21 to 27.

Dublin Police Services last week responded to several burglaries, thefts and car break-ins citywide.  

Deputies are encouraging local folks to consider Neighborhood Watch programs as possible deterrents to such criminal malfeasance. For more information, click here.

And from the spooky, eerie, makings-of-a-good-Halloween-movie files, a San Ramon-Danville-area family was befuddled over how, in a two-week span, several 911 calls were made from their address -- without their knowledge, while they slept or when they were not even home.

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The mystery began when the mom recently was woken up at 1 a.m. by a phone call.

“911. What is your emergency?” said the caller.

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Her household was asleep; there was no emergency. Why was 911 calling?

“You called us,” the 911 operator insisted.

After some back-and-forth, the operator felt comfortable that the woman and her family were safe and hung up.

A few days later, the woman pulled onto her street only to see two police cars in front of her house.

A call from inside was placed to 911, said the cops. Again, vexing -- no one was home.

And frankly, the officers added, they had been to her address four times in the past two weeks responding to 911 calls.

"I said, 'Oh, my God, I'm so sorry. I'll look into it right away,'" said the woman, who still cringes over the repeat police visits and opted for anonymity.

The house has no alarm service linked to emergency numbers, and, the flustered resident assured law enforcement, no pranksters under the roof.

After a service call from their telephone land-line provider, the 911-dialing culprit was revealed to be an old phone in a spare bedroom, which was sending out static pulses that would randomly hit on emergency number 911.

Reports of phones dialing 911 on their own are rare, to be sure, but they do happen, according to news articles, internet discussion groups, emergency-response workers, and even a phone technician's YouTube video.

In the late 1980s, a Los Angeles Times story highlighted how old, "dying" phones calling 911 by themselves was a routine headache for police.

The area family's phone -- an older model initially placed in the guest room in case the grandmother stayed over and needed to call 911 -- is now in the recycling bin.

In other police news:

Saturday, Oct. 27

  • Car break-in logged 10:24 a.m. on the 4300 block of Keegan Street.
  • Noise complaint filed 9:39 p.m. on 5800 Hillbrook Place.
  • Man arrested 11:55 p.m. for suspected public intoxication on 4400 Tassajara Road.
  • Theft reported 9:30 p.m. on 5000 Dublin Boulevard; theft using access-card data 8:58 p.m. on 7000 Allegheny Drive.
  • Identity theft logged 7:09 p.m. on 100 Civic Plaza.
  • Midday brushfire near I-580.

Friday, Oct. 26

  • Burglary case reported on 100 Civic Plaza 3:18 p.m.
  • Suspicious circumstances investigated 11:56 a.m. on 6700 Amador Plaza Road, and 9:48 p.m. on the 6600 block of Hemlock Street.
  • Missing-person/runaway case filed noon on the 11400 block of Silvergate Drive.
  • Car break-ins: 9:04 p.m. on 6700 Regional Street; 10:06 p.m. on 7300 Sheffield Lane; 10:13 p.m. on 7900 Dublin Boulevard.
  • Homeland Security Urban Shield drills begin on Broder Boulevard.
  • Arrest for suspected driving under the influence made 9:13 a.m. on 6900 Village Parkway.
  • Arrested teen suspects explain Castro Valley robbery/murder/arson.
  • 3 p.m., Livermore.

Thursday, Oct. 25

  • Vehicle accident with property damage reported on Tassajara Road at Windemere Parkway at 11:06 a.m.
  • Injury accident logged along 11600 East Branch Parkway, San Ramon.

Wedndesday, Oct. 24

  • Burglary reported 4:45 p.m. on 7000 Tamarack Drive.
  • Theft logged 10:05 p.m. on 6700 Amador Plaza Road.
  • Vehicles towed for overdue registration: 12:26 p.m. Central Parkway and Hacienda Drive; 3:26 p.m. Dublin Boulevard at Village Parkway.
  • Oakland female, 36, arrested 10:10 a.m. Dublin Boulevard and Regional Street on warrant charges.
  • Noise complaint filed 11:32 a.m. along 3000 Finnian Way.
  • Domestic battery reported 5:33 p.m. on the 4800 block of Landmark Way.
  • Car break-in 5 p.m. on 8700 Davona Drive.
  • San Ramon man, 35, served warrant 4:15 p.m. on 7100 Amador Valley Boulevard.
  • Vandalism/property damage reported 11:30 p.m. along 6900 York Drive.

Tuesday, Oct. 23

  • Grand theft from a building along 7100 Amador Plaza Road reported 4:30 p.m.
  • Identity theft logged 5:07 p.m. on 7200 Dover Lane.
  • Jackknifed big rig on I-680.
  • Vehicle reported stolen 6:26 a.m. on Pine Valley Road at Del Mar Drive.

Monday, Oct. 22

  • Shoplifting reported 12:52 p.m. on 7100 Regional Street.
  • Burglary reported 3:41 a.m. on 6100 Moore Place.
  • Forgery cited 9:51 a.m. on 5000 Haven Place.
  • Hayward male, 28, arrested for alleged shoplifting theft 1:39 p.m. on Dougherty Road.
  • Suspicious circumstances investigated 6:22 p.m. on the 11100 block of Bay Laurel Street.
  • Car break-in logged 6:15 p.m. on 3600 Fallon Road.
  • Dublin man, 19, arrested 4:10 p.m. for suspected trespassing on the 7000 block of Dublin Meadows Court.
  • Fremont Wells Fargo Bank robbed by masked man with fake gun, on heels of two nearby bank hold-ups detailed here.

Sunday, Oct. 21

  • Vehicles towed for overdue registration: 6:56 a.m. on 6300 Houston Place; 4:02 p.m. on 7400 Amador Valley Boulevard.
  • Dublin man, 21, arrested by deputies for suspected DUI and no driver's license on 1 Stoneridge Mall Road, Pleasanton, at 10:38 p.m.
  • Dublin man, 39, arrested on warrant charges 5:29 p.m. along Dublin Boulevard.
  • Car break-in reported 4:30 p.m. on 4800 Dublin Boulevard.
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