Tuesday, January 13, 2009

What would you have done?

Our phone rang at 4:30 this morning. The caller ID said "Pay Phone" and seeing as how not all of Jim's extra special relatives have kicked off, he answered.

A mans voice said "I want to report a girl is being sexually molested at such and such address El Camino Real... in Tustin." I could hear him, he sounded serious but not urgent. Jim replied after a pause, "OK... uh..." and then the guy hung up.
We sat there in silence for a few second. our fuzzy brains still trying to wake up and process what we had just heard. Was that real?

Part of me didn't believe him at all, sad that I'm such a cynic. I wondered if he was just making a simple prank call. But then my brain started to crank. He gave a very specific address, he obviously wanted to draw attention to something that was happening there at that moment. But was it really what he said? Was someone being victimized right at that moment?

My brain next thought, ok if I call my local police dept and tell them what I just heard, are they going to doubt me like I doubt the guy who called me? Where they going to do anything about something that may or may not be happening in a city 15 miles away?

If I had made a call like that I would have been panicked and talking very fast, the man was very calm almost emotionless from what I could hear.
After Jim's disbelieving and seemingly disinterested response he hung up, so I'm wondering if he realized he didn't reach the police department or whoever else he was trying to reach.

Did he try to call another police dept after that?
Why the hell didn't he just call 911?

All of these things rolled through my head over and over after he called and through the day today.

In the end ur cynic/tired sides won out and we did nothing.

So what do you think?

What would you have done?