
Rescue: 911
Posted by Rich...! under Uncategorized on March 5 2006 at 5:18 AMWilliam Shatner: “Tonight on Rescue: 911… It was a cold March night in Northriding. Mr Richard Mulholland was asleep in his house with his family. The following is a dramatisation from memory…”

03:33:
Andrea: “Wake up, Murphy’s going crazy and I hear something in the garden.
Rich…!: “Murphy!” *whistles*
Dog seems to be blocked from entering house, we see this on the cameras.
03:35:
-PANIC ACTIVATION-
03:45:
Rich…!: “Hi control? What’s going on, I pushed my panic button and no one’s here yet.”
SAS Control: “Let me check sir.” To radio, “(Call sign), where are you, why have you not arrived at the Toledo activation”.
-Silence-
SAS Control: “(Call sign)!”
Guard on radio: “I’ll get back to you.”
SAS Control: “No, I have the client on the line, what’s going on?”
-More silence-
SAS Control: “Sir, I’ll get back to you, this man has an attitude problem. he’s not answering”
03:55:
Rich…!: “Control, what’s going on, there’s still no one here?”
SAS Control: “Let me send the duty manager over.”
-Does so by radio-
Rich…!: “This is bullshit, what time was my panic activation?”
SAS Control: “03:35 sir.”
Rich…! “20 minutes, this is crazy, where are your guys? Someone could be fucking killing my family here for all you know!”
03:58:
-Car pulls up, we watch him on the camera-
03:59:
-Guard still in car, not getting out-
Rich…!: “Control, what’s your guard doing, he’s still in his car?”
SAS Control: “What are you doing?”
-muffled-
SAS Control: “No, they’re watching you on the camera, they say you’re not leaving your car!”
- Car does a u-turn, guard still doesn’t get out.”
-We hit panic again to stress urgency-
-Still sits in car-
-We open garage so he can get in-
-Nothing-
04:01:
- Second car arrives -
- Gets out of car but doesn’t enter -
- I feel a bit braver, unlock the bedroom area security gate (crazy fucking life) and head outside.
Rich…!: “What’s gong on?”
Guard 2: “We’re scared of your dog.”
Rich…! “But last time you all just jumped over the gate, this guy didn’t even get out of his car!”
Guard 1: (Voice raised) “Are you saying I didn’t get out of my car?”
Rich…! (Equally raised) “Yeah, I watched you on the fucking cameras, you didn’t move.”
Guard 1: “You have a vicious dog, he’ll bite me.”
Rich…! (Shouting now) “But someone could’ve been in my house killing us, that’s your fucking job bru!”
Guard 1: “YOU WANT ME TO GET EATEN BY YOUR DOG? YOU WANT ME TO GET EATEN BY YOUR DOG? FUCK YOU!”
-Gets in his car and screeches off-
Rich….! (Loud at the retreating car) “*CENSORED*”, (but lets just say that tourette’s patients would blush.)
Guard 2: “I’m sorry sir, he has an attitude problem.”
Guard 2: (Into radio) “Control, that man has gone, he refused to go in and is swearing at the client”.
Rich…! (Calm again) “This is fucking crazy, no-one has checked my house yet.”
Guard 2: “Please hold your dog and I’ll check.”
Rich…!: “Fine, but what would we do if I was tied up with my wife and child inside, what use are you guys if you wont come in?”
-I hold Murphy, guard patrols house-
Guard 2: “All seems to be fine sir”
Rich…!: “Cool, thanks, I’m not angry with you but I’m very angry with the situation.”
Guard 2: “It’s understandable sir, I’ll get a manager to call you tomorrow.
04:10:
-Cant sleep-
So yeah, I lost it with the guy and didn’t handle the situation very well, but shit, as far as I’m concerned these guys are in a high risk job, if they’re scared of a dog, what chance do you have if they’re up against someone with a gun? It’s all just a false sense of security.
Sleep tight…!
March 5th, 2006 at 4:04 pm
Unbelievable…
It sounds like Murphy’s the only constant in this story!
March 5th, 2006 at 4:33 pm
Too true bro, so I’ve added a pic of my wee hero, he is afterall the star of the show…!
March 6th, 2006 at 11:12 am
Thats incredible. Big up to Murphy! He looks awesome!
What company was it?
March 6th, 2006 at 11:52 am
I have problem – I live with a 48kg Doberman who is basically a docile kitten once you set foot on my property but goes off like a possessed demon at the gate. However, it is possible that he will eat anyone alive who tries to get in unless I tell him not to!
I’ve also noticed that the guards try to make friends with the dog once they’re in and I wonder whether this is a good idea??
March 6th, 2006 at 12:10 pm
Now curse my cotton socks and call me crazy but perhaps the “car bound” guards were actually fully aware of the suspicious ongoing that caused you to call them in the first place. No, I’m not accusing anyone of being directly involved in the potential robbery of your house or anything, I’m just saying…
And then perhaps good ol’ Murphy disturbed the whole thing! I think you need to give him 4 and a half dog biscuits and get him a blog so he can post advice for Jam’s little puppy and others.
March 6th, 2006 at 5:55 pm
Fuck handling the situation well. You’re 100% right. What a knob. Get the guy fired.
March 6th, 2006 at 6:02 pm
And yet another example of a quiet night in Northriding. Man, its getting crazy in our area.
Methinks stuff like this is also the reason why SAS was (suddenly) replaced…err check that, fired….from our complex.
March 6th, 2006 at 6:04 pm
Your only defense is a barstool – I promise that it works like a charm.
March 7th, 2006 at 11:38 am
I’d normally say “Move to Pretoria” but hell, even Pretoria ain’t that safe these days.
This is the new SA. Accept your defeat and probably your early death or leave. But like we all say when we try and find something nice about South Africa – “The weather is realy nice, insn’t it?”.
F**k that! What’s happening with my immigration papers?
March 8th, 2006 at 2:31 pm
Let’s face it you are paying for that plaque on the fence, that’s all.
March 14th, 2006 at 8:38 pm
Glad to hear you guys are ok though
We had a similar experience not too long ago. 2h00 at night and our alarm is triggered, we could see movement on the motion sensor just down the hall from our bedroom. So we re-armed alarm, got triggered again etc. By this time we were seriously scared and called 10111 as the alarm wasn’t hooked up to armed response.
To make a long story short, the lady answering the phone was from Boksburg Flying Squad and in a very rude manner informed us that as we stay in Sunninghill that’s not her area and therefore not her problem, we should call Vodacom’s 112 emergency number and ask them to route us to the correct precint. WTF, by this time I was so angry I lost it as well and almost forgot about the fact that there might still be someone in our house.(which was still a very f*cking real possibility) She couldn’t transfer us to the correct precint, didn’t offer any assistance at all despite the fact that we repeatedly told her we think there’s someone in our house… We didn’t sleep at all the rest of the night, just stared at the motion sensors until daybreak. By that time we decided it must’ve been someone that tried breaking in or a cat that triggered the alarm, this time…
I must just note that previously I’ve had really good service from the police. On a previous occasion in 2003 someone was waiting for us in our house and when we realised it and called 10111 they had 3 squad cars filled with cops armed with automatic weapons and shit at our place in less than 5 minutes. Enough time for the dudes to escape with laptops and loose things but I must really give them credit for that. (That was in Pretoria so there might be some truth in Andrew’s comment)
March 15th, 2006 at 12:21 pm
Solution? Move to Cape Town … (Although I can’t guarantee that the alarm companies are any better. Mine sucks.)