911 Dispatcher Recognizes Woman Who Called to Order Pizza Actually Needs Help

The woman wanted to call 911 without letting her mother's attacker know.

pepperoni
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Image via Getty/Shannon O'Hara

pepperoni

An Ohio emergency dispatcher’s sixth sense kicked in when a woman called 911 trying to order a pizza.

Tim TenEyck received the call earlier this month, and at first thought the woman had dialed the number accidentally, Time reports. But when he told the woman for the second time that she had made a mistake, the woman repeated herself.

“She stuck with that pizza story and said she really wanted to order that pepperoni pizza. I knew that there was something else going on,” TenEyck told Time. The woman gave TenEyck an address and the call ended around 30 seconds later.

Local news channel 13abc reported later that the woman called because a man had purportedly hit her mother. The woman told the outlet she wanted to call without letting the attacker know. Police later arrested the suspect for domestic violence.

The call has been equated to a Public Service Announcement that aired during the 2015 Super Bowl. In the ad, a woman calls 911 to order a pizza but is actually asking for protection while in a room with her assailant.

TenEyck believes it’s important to take every 911 call seriously. “Just listen,” TenEyck says. “Make sure you’re hearing what they’re not saying.”

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