Phone Malfunction Floods Guelph 911 with Nearly 200 Calls in One Hour

Dispatchers were left scrambling as call after call came in with no one on the line. What they discovered behind it was something no one expected.

A malfunctioning phone kept Guelph Police Service communicators hopping after calling 911 nearly 200 times in just over an hour Thursday.

The first call was received at 10:54 a.m. There was no voice contact on any of the calls, which continued uninterrupted until just after noon while communicators tried to answer new calls.

Communicators were able to trace the phone to an east-end address. Officers attended and spoke to the owner, who advised their phone malfunctioned after it was dropped in water. The owner had no idea the phone was auto-dialing 911 until officers knocked on their door.