It's 3:00 am and your phone rings, waking you up. When you answer, at first all you can hear is a noisy connection. Then, through the noise - faint but distinct - a child's voice saying "Mommy (or Daddy, if you are male)… Mommy... I want to come home...". Then the phone disconnects. Do you go back to sleep? Or get concerned that a child might be in danger?
It might depend a little on the tone of the child. I would be very disappointed in someone that would even be able to go back to sleep in that scenario, shows a lack of humanity. There is only one reason I can think of and that is if the person believes it's part of a dream in their half-wake stupid state. Then it might be understandable if they to go back to sleep. Step one would be to directly contact the authorities on their 24/7 non-emergency number. Then tell them about the situation and that you would be willing to provide them your phone. If the call number is visible I would also do some personal investigating while waiting for what the authorities might do.
I'd call the cops and tell them what I know but then I'd go back to sleep. There's nothing I can do about the situation. Is it concerning? Yes. Do I have power over the situation or the ability to make it better past alerting the police? No. Honestly though I'd be more inclined to believe it's some kid prank calling and hang up before the noise dies off. And that's even if my phone isn't on do not disturb.
I'd probably go back to sleep that's if I heard the phone in the first place as I sleep like a stone statue.
Call it in. Police have no problem taking that report and tracing the call. You never know if it's genuine. That's what I would do, and then worry about it over the course of a couple days.
Here in Scotland, if you're on the BT system, you can immediately dial 1471 after a caller has hung up, and it will give you the number that just phoned you. I assume other telephone systems have a similar facility. I'd call 1471, take down the number, then immediately phone the police. Give them that number, which might help them zero in on the call quickly. (The number may also indicate if it's a local call or not, if it's coming from a landline.) The one thing I would NOT do is attempt to phone the number back yourself. If the child is in some bother and calling for help, you might alert the wrong people. Leave it to the police to deal with.
Good answers, everyone! I hadn't thought about that, Jannert. My call could alert the person who is possibly hurting them. It's sensible to just hand it over to the police, but I know really that I would call back. I've pretty much always worked in bookshops, so I'm used to looking out for kids. The shop I'm in now is big, and things happen quite often. Sometimes, it's the parents being irresponsible (leaving under 5's at the little drawing table while they pop out to another store ). Usually, it is a lost child issue. It's absolutely awful when a parent rushes up and says, "I can't find my little girl." Thank goodness, it's always only been that they've wandered off. But those first few minutes are crucial. One can't hang around. We have a very busy road about a hundred metres away.
And idiot parents who think store staff or restaurant servers are their personal babysitters..... I knew of one server who was serving a bunch of tables, a set of parents left their child unattended and she wandered off. Big to-do over it, they blamed the server for not watching the kid. The server was very upset - "I am NOT a babysitter! This child was NOT my responsibility and I never said I would watch her." Not sure what the outcome was. This was like 25 years ago and we lost touch.
Back when Discovery channel had Discovery Kids, I used to watch this show when I was younger. I completely forgot what it was called, but it has actors playing these true stories, and then at the end of the episode, it shows the people it's about and where they are now. One story was about this teenaged boy thats always on his computer in chat rooms. And one day, someone popped up on in the chatroom calling for help that she was going to die. Naturally, everyone in the chatroom called her a troll and ignored her, except for the boy. He asked why she didnt call the police, and she said she couldnt because she couldnt speak. He just couldnt let it go and kept talking with her, and found out that she wasnt even in his country. She was really scared and was all alone. So he called his local police, but they thought it was a prank. So he kept calling and a cop finally showed up at his place and he showed them the chat and convinced them to call the police in her town, and, long story short, they found her. She was suffering from a medical problem or something and emergencies services came and saved her. They met in real life a few years later and she thinks of him as her angel because he saved her life. He said he couldnt just ignore that message. He felt like he had to try and help her. I think the series was called "Amazing Kids" or something like that. as to what I would do? I'd probably think about it a lot, and google the area code (like i always do if i get a call from an unknown number), then call my family to make sure everyone is accounted for (i have quite a few little cousins), and then go back to sleep.
I was watching "American Greed" while reading this and just as I read this, the guy being interviewed said, "Nothing good happens at 3 o'clock in the morning. It's never good when the phone rings."
So what if you tried to phone back to that number and - 1. the phone rings and rings with no pickup, OR 2. a recorded voice tells you that number is not in service, OR 3. the call is from your own house. (#2 and 3 were suggested by a horror fan.)
Good points! Well, I'd then have gathered a lot more information. Also, as it's very likely the call was nothing to worry about, I'd be able to sleep easy. In your 1 and 2 examples, I'd call the police. But, honestly, my faith in them is not very high. It's not their fault. Their budgets have been cut so badly. Do you know, if your house is burgled, they give you a crime number for your insurance, but don't attend. Sorry if any officers read this. You're still amazing!
I can't imagine I would answer a call from an unknown number at 3 am. If I did, I'd hang up before the child could speak. For the sake of answering the question I'd probably assume I was being pranked first of all. Knowing me there would be enough doubt to report it online and then go back to sleep. As for the the other options... 1) I'd get nervous it was real and start worrying about the kid 2) I'd probably assume I was pranked and forget about it 3) I'd freak the eff out
If i'm honest i'd probably assume it was a wrong number and go back to sleep... also in Britain the police are so under resourced something like that would never get followed up anyway unless it coincided with the hunt for a child known to be missing
If the number wasn't blocked and I assume was traceable, I'd call the police and give them the number. Otherwise, I'd block the number after I hang up and go back to sleep, because, and this may be my paranoia talking, chances are it's one of those dangerous prank calls the news tend to warn people about from time to time.