At first, the dispatcher was baffled by the call:
“You called 911 to order a pizza?” Tim Teneyck said.
“Uh … yeah,” she said.
The dispatcher informed the caller that they dialed the incorrect number, but the caller persisted.
Tim realized it wasn’t a mistaken call.
Earlier that month, police in Oregon, Ohio, arrested a man for dom:estic vi:olen:ce. They now believe the woman who faked a pizza order was more of a cry for help.
The dispatcher said that he was not trained to suspect a food delivery call. Initially, he assumed the caller had mistakenly called 911 to buy a pizza, but with her persistence, he realized something was amiss.
“If it’s your only option, and that ab:usi:ve person is next to you and listening to everything you say, then by all means — you call and order that pizza,” he told The Washington Post.
A domestic ab:u”se organization marketed the pizza method as something that could work in challenging situations. A PSA shown during the 2015 Super Bowl featured a woman using the pizza approach with the phrase, “When it’s hard to talk, it’s up to us to listen.”
Authorities are aware that the word “pizza” is occasionally used as a code word.
“This is false. Text to 911 is a much better option,” the Los Angeles Police Department tweeted in response to one post that went viral promoting “pepperoni pizza” as a secret word for assistance. “Your exact location & the nature of your emergency is what’s needed to send the right resources.”
However, 911 in Oregon, Ohio, cannot receive texts, according to dispatcher Teneyck. He advises anyone calling 911 to stay as long as possible so that officers can hear what is going on in the background.
Audio released shows Teneyck immediately determined the daughter’s true reason for calling.
“I’m getting you now,” he said at 20 seconds in, after she told him, “You’re not understanding.”
Simon Lopez, 56, was arrested and incarcerated for domestic abu:se, according to court documents. The public defender’s office, which represented Lopez, declined to comment on the case.
The woman told police that Lopez arrived home under the influence and argued with her before punching her in the arm with a closed fist and pushing her against the wall, according to the Toledo Blade.
She told officers that Lopez was noisy, disruptive, verbally and physically abu:si:ve and that he threatened to beat her. Lopez disputed the charges, according to police documents.
“I do believe that in other cases, it’s a very real possibility that another dispatcher in a larger jurisdiction could have handled it differently and lost the call,” Tim Teneyck said.
Oregon Police Chief Michael Navarre stated that he is “extremely proud” of Teneyck’s work and intends to use the pizza call during training.
“He picked up on a woman who was in distress but was in a position where she couldn’t convey it to him in those words,” Navarre said.
The woman performed admirably under extreme pressure, as did the dispatcher’s efforts in quickly assessing the true nature of the problem.
