The 911 Services administrator for Stoddard County in southeast Missouri is calling attention to a growing problem of children playing with discarded cellphones and accidentally calling 911.
The Dexter Daily Statesman reports that Carol Moreland says parents are apparently unaware that dialing random numbers from a cellphone or landline phone will eventually reach the 911 dispatch center, causing a distraction for dispatchers and emergency personnel.
Moreland says that if parents are going to give children discarded phones to play with they need to remove both the subscriber identification module card and the battery.
