P.E.I. couple cancels landline service after 911 malfunctions
Nicole Williams | CBC News | Posted: September 4, 2017 9:00 AM | Last Updated: September 5, 2017
A P.E.I. couple says police have arrived a dozen times after 'ghost' calls to 911
Louis Myers said it was early one January morning when RCMP showed up to his and his wife Joanne's house the first time.
"About 2:30 one morning we had the RCMP ringing our doorbell which is not pleasant thing to happen in the middle of the night," he said.
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They were told RCMP had received a 911 call from their address.
The problem is neither of them had made the call and their phone wasn't even functioning at the time.
Myers called their service provider Bell Aliant the next day to have someone come fix the problem, but before a technician was able to get out to their Emyvale home, police showed up a second time.
"After the second or third time it starts getting on your nerves and I imagine on their nerves, too," he said.
'It's hard on the nerves'
Myers said over a six-month period, RCMP showed up at his doorstep about a dozen times.
"It's hard on the nerves," said Myers. "Police showing up at your door, all hours of the day and night."
Several Bell Aliant technicians tried to fix the issue, but Myers said the problem didn't stop until he and his wife cancelled their phone service in July.
"We haven't had an issue since," he said. "If we were to hook that phone back up again, I assume it'd still be making 911 calls."
Bell Aliant responds
In an email sent to CBC, a Bell Aliant spokesperson said, "while very rare, unintended calls to 911 can be caused by a short on older cabling, usually due to inclement weather."
Bell Aliant confirms that technicians went to the residence several times to replace telephone line equipment.
"We did provide a credit to the customer's account, but unfortunately they cancelled their telephone service before the issue was resolved," they said.
RCMP weren't able to confirm these specific incidents for safety reasons, but police did confirm ghost calls to 911 are common and have to be investigated every time.
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