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'Butt Dial': SWAT Team Responds to Accidental Pocket Dial

By Minara El-Rahman on January 09, 2011 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

Anyone with a cell phone has probably experienced the embarrassing phenomenon of the "butt dial." However, one man in Winnetka, Ill. got the surprise of his life when his "butt dial" summonsed out the SWAT team. The Huffington Post reports that his accidental cell phone call to his wife led to a SWAT team storming into a Chicago suburb's school where the man worked.

For those of you readers who don't know what a "butt dial" is, Winnetka Police Chief Joseph De Lopez explains it best: "You know how when you sit on your phone when it's in your back pocket and it calls the last number that was dialed? His wife was the last number he'd dialed."

That particular call was while the man was in his car listening to some hip hop music. When his wife heard the startling lyrics and found her husband to be unresponsive over the phone, she panicked and called 911 because she thought he was being held hostage.

After the wife placed the call, MSNBC.com reports that SWAT team members did a sweep of the school that the man worked in for three hours. The sweep was called off once the man was found to be safe at home.

Naturally, the man is embarrassed over the false alarm. Mark Friedman, the school district's superintendent was quoted as saying, "He's embarrassed. Who wouldn't be? He's taking it hard that it created such a response." The good news is that, according to the Chicago Tribune, Winnetka police are not going to charge the couple because there was no intent on their part to deceive police by the 911 call.

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