Don't you just love these urban legends? Those that sound so good on the surface -- and might be a real good idea -- but are either premature or pure crap?
Some of these legends are harmless at worst. Others do absolutely nothing but scare the living crap out of people (like the ones that had been making the rounds long before the Internet, about prospective gang members' initiation rites). And other legends may have you jump through a bunch of useless hoops in an emergency.
I got wind of one a couple of days ago, through an email.The story goes like this: It seems Lauren, a young woman, was being followed and pulled over by an unmarked car with a flashing red light on the roof. May be a real cop, may be some real sketchy type, you never know in that situation. She remembered some advice from mom and dad and used her cell phone to call *77, a straight-in number to police dispatch. Within minutes four real cops showed up, stopped the unmarked car, and arrested the driver -- who was a convicted rapist.
Nice story, right? A hell of an idea, too. Only problem is, either it's not true or "Lauren" sure gets around. One version (which showed up on the Internet in early 2002) has Lauren as a 19-year-old coed in Virginia. In 2003, still 19, "Lauren" escapes a similar fate in Australia, where dialing the "Number 112" feature on her cel saved the day for her. In mid-2004, the 19-year-old Lauren is followed again, in Canada, and saves her bacon by dialing *677. And in 2007, Lauren -- still 19 years old -- is in Dorset in the United Kingdom where her handy cell phone bails her out of similar trouble.
Plenty of inconsistencies in Lauren's tale, and already that makes it questionable. But let's skip all that crap and get to the important part of the story. What will dialing *77 get you?
In my neck of the woods, not a damned thing. Calling *77 from Charleston, South Carolina, gives me nothing but a fast busy signal. I tried a variation of the story, with #77, and was informed that my call could not be completed as dialed. (I figured if a real cop answered the phone during my experiments, I could always pretend I'm drunk and trying to call my mom in Truth Or Consequences, New Mexico, or some such fantasy.) So it won't work where I am, and I hope in a real emergency no real time is wasted fiddling with all those 77s. Stick with 911; it's battle-tested.
According to snopes.com, the great debunker of urban legends, some states use #77 as an emergency number while others may use *55, *47, or *HP as an emergency number. Your mileage may vary. If you're out traveling the highways, you might see information signs at roadside or on trucks advertising the number du jour. But to be on the safe side, stick with 911.
Clicking this link will give you a map showing emergency numbers from the states. This was originally put together in 2000 by the Missouri Highway patrol, and is pretty up to date. But this map may not be immediately available in a real emergency and you probably won't have time to pull up this web site, so do yourself a favor. In crunch time when the adrenaline is pumping like mad and you can hear your heart pounding in your ears, forget all that crap and dial 911. At least that works.
One urban legend I run across is the one about putting ICE on your cell phone. The idea here is to have emergency contact information on your phone, and slug it as ICE -- for In Case Of Emergency. Now, I've heard various reviews of this, but this is one of those it-can't-hurt-but-it-may-help things. There are rumors that viruses may target phones that have ICE in the directory, or folks who have it on their cell phones may end up paying higher rates per minute, but to all indications that seems to be nothing but a legend. Again, ICE may or may not be useless, so I have it on my phone. To me, though, what makes more sense is to carry a thumb drive with a text file containing all your emergency and medical information (history, allergies, prescriptions, things like that). These drives are small enough to do that, and maybe someone, somewhere, may take the ICE cell phone trick and merge it with the thumb drive idea. As cell phones get more advanced and have more memory, don't be surprised if a version of this idea becomes reality.
Now, *77 does sound like a great idea. Maybe someone will pick it up and run with it. Sometimes if enough people hear an urban legend it'll grow legs and become truth. Maybe in a few years it will be possible to dial *77 and get a cop. But it's not happening yet, and you sure don't need to be frittering away valuable seconds in an actual emergency.
Stick with 911. At least you know it works.
(For other links, check out the Western Herald and Urban Legend Zeitgeist.)
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