911 Uh-Oh

This is one of those family stories that must be written down before it's forgotten.

Toby (who gave up naps at age 2) was enjoying his "rest time" after lunch yesterday when two friendly Ventura policemen came knocking on our front door. When Jochen answered, they wanted to know whether there was an emergency, because a five year old contacted a 911 dispatcher from our residence.

To fully understand how this unfolded, I have to begin a couple weeks ago, when Toby told me he needed his own cell phone and I responded with a firm "No".

"But I'm a real spy, and all spies have cell phones for their missions," he explained.

"How about using your Spiderman phone, then?" I suggested.

"No, I mean a real phone. That one is made out of plastic. And besides, you can't make phone calls with that one."

"Well, if that doesn't work, maybe you can get a cell phone from your spy boss. You must have a boss, since I'm not the one paying you for your spy work, right?"

"You're right!" he agreed enthusiastically before darting out of the kitchen. I naively thought that was the end of the conversation.

But two days later, he snagged my cell phone and took it to preschool in his pocket! Luckily the teacher observed Toby showing the phone to friends on the playground before Jochen departed and she hastily pulled him aside to ask, "Did you give Toby his own cell phone?"

About five days following this incident, in the last moments before leaving for work I walked into the garage and discovered both Toby and Joshua on their bicycles, helmuts firmly snapped on, ready to leave. I asked the obvious question at 7:15 a.m., "What's going on?"

"It's not what it looks like," Joshua began. "I'm trying to stop Toby. He was ready to leave on a bicycle by himself to go find his boss to ask for a cell phone. I stalled him by telling him I would go with him."

"I see."

I then explained to both Toby and Joshua that leaving on their bikes to ride around the neighborhood before school without permission wasn't going to fly, phone or no phone. That was last week.

Then sometime yesterday morning, Toby discovered an old cell phone in our garage that was hidden from view and not easily accessible without climbing on the washing machine. (He's nothing, if not resourceful.)

Joshua was at school when all of this occurred, so we've had to piece the story together based on Toby's selective five-year old memory. We believe Toby "discovered" the cell phone and immediately took it from the garage to his bedroom, where he hid it under his bed. When his daily "rest time" rolled around after lunch, Jochen remembers Toby being very eager to leave the table to go play in his room.

How Toby succeeded in turning the phone on and dialing the only phone number that would have worked we'll never know. That the phone was still operating at all was quite remarkable. The cell service to that phone was turned off six months ago and the battery remained uncharged. We do know that last spring a couple of firemen visited his preschool and emphasized how to dial 9-1-1, so this is when he memorized the emergency phone number and his address.

According to Officers Cole and Alexander, who responded to the call, Toby told the 911 dispatcher his name, his age, and where he lived on Fremont Street. Then he started spinning one of his imaginative tales. He told the dispatcher that he was home alone and his Daddy was supposed to be there, but he wasn't. Since Toby has never been much of a conversationalist on the phone, we believe this was in response to questions the dispatcher was likely asking him.

Jochen recounts that Toby was genuinely surprised when the police arrived at our door. Perhaps not as unpleasantly surprised as Jochen, though! When Toby was called downstairs to meet the officers, he was unable to describe what happened or why he called. For their part, the officers were very kind. They introduced themselves to Toby and explained that calling 911 was serious business, to be used only for real emergencies. They told him they came to check on him and make sure he and his family were okay. Toby blinked and nodded solemnly through all of this, but had little to say.

When I came home from work last night, Toby shared with me that he was scared when he marched downstairs and realized the policemen were there. He was sure the officers were going to take Jochen to jail, because he (Toby) did something bad! Of course I explained that this would never happen, but the shock of the experience clearly made an impression.

Jochen had Toby write an apology in his own words to the officers to be delivered to the Ventura police station today. He told me that Toby started it out with, "Thank you for not taking my Daddy to jail. . . ."