4 gunshots, 911, Verizon, LG Chocolate 3 phone

[AZRedhawk44]

Went to bed at 10 last night.

Woke up at 11:50 to 4 gunshots just over my backyard wall to the south, no more than 2 houses away.  Could have been fireworks, possibly... but sounded like large caliber subsonic gunshots or possibly a shotgun.  Two pairs.  First pair was much more audible than the second, the second pair sounding muffled.  Sounded like the first pair was aimed out a window (home owner defending against intruder in window or door), and the second pair aimed inside a house (home owner continuing to shoot intruder as he enters).

Sat still for awhile to make certain that I heard no footsteps in MY backyard (all houses in our neighborhood have cinderblock walls surrounding the yards... not terribly worried about shots coming through it and into my house unless someone lets loose with a full sized non-poodle rifle) or anyone climbing over my fence.  Called dog to me, closed bedroom door to make sure he doesn't go outside and bite anyone stumbling through my yard, cops or bad guys.  Gave it about 2-3 minutes, then found my cell phone and hit 9-1-1-Send.

Nothing.

9-1-1-Send.

Nothing.

WTF?

Turn on lamp to make sure I'm hitting the right numbers, even though the keypad is illuminated.  9-1-1-Send.

Nothing.

Screw it, I pick up my cordless house phone.  9-1-1-Send (it's a wireless phone but connected to a landline).  I get through and report the gunshots and direction/proximity.  They got another report as well.  Asked if I wanted/needed assistance or an officer to stop by, I said no, I was fine.  Hung up and went back to bed.  Never heard sirens in response, which creeps me out a bit.

I know I didn't dream it, because my landline phone was next to my bed this morning (I never use the landline), and my bedroom door was shut when I woke up.  Definitely was real.

Woke up this morning and reported the lack of 911 access to Verizon.  Even re-tried calling 911... still no luck.  LG evidently has a recall on Chocolate 3 phones as they are no longer compatible with Verizon's 911 service, and they are sending me a new phone for free.

FYI:  If you're on verizon and have an LG Chocolate 3, your 911 access may not work.

[Jamisjockey]

Weird.  Check the manual and see if there is something special you are suppossed to do to call 911.  Consider entering it into your speed dial.

Hung up and went back to bed.  Never heard sirens in response, which creeps me out a bit

Many moons ago I went on a bunch of ride-a-longs with a family friend.  We responded to a shots fired call and when he got near the area he turned off his lights and sirens and headlights and we rolled into the neighborhood (trailer park) totally dark, windows down, radio turned way down. 
Turned out to be a drunk redneck shooting coyotes out of his trailer window.

[Firethorn]

How the heck could a phone become 'so' incompatible with 911 that you can't connect at all?

Recall is right.

[TechMan]

Did you have any bars at all?  Cell phone jammer?

[AZRedhawk44]

I had bars.

I repeated the experiment this morning, 911 still didn't work.  Verizon had me *228 update my phone and that didn't fix it.  Checked the E911/GPS settings and tried from both angles (privacy enabled and disabled). 

It's a known bug with the LG Chocolate 3 phone according to the Tier 2 tech support person I ended up working with, once I got past the dumb-dumb T1 tech support.

I can dial 411... but I can't dial 911.

[TechMan]

I had bars.

I repeated the experiment this morning, 911 still didn't work.  Verizon had me *228 update my phone and that didn't fix it.  Checked the E911/GPS settings and tried from both angles (privacy enabled and disabled). 

It's a known bug with the LG Chocolate 3 phone according to the Tier 2 tech support person I ended up working with, once I got past the dumb-dumb T1 tech support.

I can dial 411... but I can't dial 911.

Known bug and 911 is not a good combination.  I am sure some where in their legalese there is something that says "best effort" to contact 911.

[RaspberrySurprise]

Probably, there is also likely something about not being able to guarantee any access to any service provided at any time.

[CNYCacher]

I suspect all the funky stuff some phones do when you call 911.

Light up differently with a different screen, activating the GPS, playing "whoop whoop" sounds.  Get a bug in this layer of complexity and maybe the process of making the call doesn't complete.


I was quite irritated once when I called 911 and my phone loudly made a siren noise.  I would have preferred to NOT get in a staring match with the guy who was punching car windows next to his girlfriends head, but apparently LG hadn't figured out that sometimes you don't want everyone in a 30-yard radius knowing you are making a 911 call.

[tyme]

Is that behavior on a phone with factory (LG) firmware, or the undoubtedly screwed-up, drm-filled, carrier firmware?  It's quite possible that the carrier modifies how the phone handles 911 calls.

Just because LG did the recall doesn't necessarily invalidate that line of reasoning.  Often the carriers have arrangements with the manufacturer so that carrier firmware is loaded at the factory.

I have an older nokia gsm flip phone and once I called 911 with it to report a huge 18 wheeler tire mostly intact in the middle of a highway at night.  The phone called 911 just the same as it calls any other number.  I had previously modded the phone back to stock nokia firmware instead of t-mobile's crap-filled firmware.

[RaspberrySurprise]

Speaking of amazing firmware, after sending a certain number of texts it will simply stop sending them, tries to send for about ten seconds then gives up and puts up a little box asking if I want it to try again, only thing that gets it to work again is to shut it off and then turn it back on. Even better is that this has been an issue for people with this phone for almost a YEAR now. Att or Samsung will often offer to replace the phone with another if it's within warranty period, and the new phone just does the same thing.

Phones a Samsung Impression btw.

[Mabs2]

I don't have a Verizon phone but I've seen their firmware.
It's horrid.

[Acecare]

It was a terrible incident. I don't know that phon is not compatible to call 911. In case of emergency, you don't know what to do because of that issue, they should fixed it.

[MechAg94]

Another reason to save the local fire department, police department, and sheriff department numbers in your phone. 

[Mabs2]

It was a terrible incident. I don't know that phon is not compatible to call 911. In case of emergency, you don't know what to do because of that issue, they should fixed it.

I could not have said it better myself.