Posted by GWest on 10/10/06 10:03am
Msg #151358

OT: For all of our safety

Received this email today and wanted to pass it on.

MUST KNOW *677

I knew about the red light on cars, but not the *677. It was about 1:00 p.m. in the afternoon, and Lauren was driving to visit a friend. An UNMARKED police car pulled up behind her and put his lights on. *Lauren's parents have always told them never to pull over for an unmarked car on the side of the road, but rather to wait until they get to a gas station, etc *

Lauren had actually listened to her parents advice, and promptly called 677 on her cell phone to tell the police dispatcher that she would not pull over right away. She proceeded to tell the dispatcher that there was an unmarked police car with a flashing red light on his rooftop behind her. The dispatcher checked to see if there were police cars where she and there weren't, and he told her to keep driving, remain calm and that he had back up already on the way.

Ten minutes later 4 cop cars surrounded her and the unmarked car behind her.

One policeman went to her side and the others surrounded the car behind. They pulled the guy from the car and tackled him to the ground. The man was a convicted rapist and wanted for other crimes.

I never knew about the *677 Cell Phone Feature, but especially for a woman alone in a car, you should not pull over for an unmarked car. Apparently police have to respect your right to keep going to a safe&quiet place. You obviously need to make some signals that you acknowledge them ( i.e. put on your hazard lights) or call *677 like Lauren did.

Too bad the cell phone companies don't generally give you this little bit of wonderful information.

*Speaking to a service representative at **Bell** Mobility confirmed that *677 was a direct link to State Police Dispatch. So, now it's your turn to let your friends know about *677.

Reply by Cassandra Harris on 10/10/06 10:06am
Msg #151359

Thank you for posting that. I'll be sending out too. Good to know.

Reply by BetsyMI on 10/10/06 10:09am
Msg #151360

Re: OT: Correction from snopes.com

www.snopes.com says there have been variations of this story over the years.

"Whether this particular tale is true or not, women driving alone have been sexually assaulted by rapists pretending to be patrolmen (and in certain rare cases by actual police officers), so the advice it gives about not pulling over in deserted areas when signaled to do so by unmarked police vehicles is well worth heeding. Throw on your flashers, slow down, and keep driving until you get to a well-lit area where there are others about. Though you might subsequently be charged for failing to heed a police officer's commands, you will avoid the potential for harm. Call 911 and tell them what's happening, asking them to relay to the officer in pursuit your intent to continue traveling until a populated area has been reached. (Although in some U.S. states, #77 on a cell phone will immediately connect you to that state's highway patrol, that code is not universal. Some states use #77, but others use *55, *47, or *HP, and some don't have any special code at all. Rather than frantically try to figure out which one will work in the area you're in, get around the problem by going straight to 911."

Reply by Gary_CA on 10/10/06 10:41am
Msg #151369

Good Job Betsy... Moral of story: DONT PASS ON URBAN LEGENDS

It's well intentioned, but we all know where that road leads.

Folks we're notaries, specialists in fraud prevention. Before you post or email blast a story run it by snopes, or just google it.

Don't just post things with no idea whether or not they're BS... like the one about opening your car with your cell phone the other day.

or about emergency codes that arent.

So if you have an emergency and you have a cell phone, KNOW WHERE YOU'RE AT (because they may or may not have the equipment to read your cell phone's GPS... or you may be under trees) and CALL 911

Wasn't that easy??

Reply by cassiewi on 10/10/06 10:44am
Msg #151370

Re: Good Job Betsy... Moral of story: DONT PASS ON URBAN LEGENDS

I stand scolded. Never heard of snopes.com, but now I will check there. Thanks Betsy!

Reply by Gary_CA on 10/10/06 10:51am
Msg #151373

just a minor scold... snopes is cool...

There are some legends that do damage when passed on, so it's a good habit to check. Kinda "the boy who cried wolf" thing...

there have been false reports of viruses blasted to everybody and his uncle and then a real virus with the same name came out later after everyone "knew" it was a fake

one about the fundraising letters of a legitimate hospital having anthrax in them and lots and lots of folks threw the envelopes away unopened causing hardship for a good organization

...stuff like that...

Snopes is interesting reading, and if you just take some key words out of the text of any email like that and put in i't search, it'll find it ...

If you just google key words of stuff like that snopes usually comes out on top.

Reply by cassiewi on 10/10/06 11:10am
Msg #151381

Re: just a minor scold... snopes is cool...

It's ok, I should be more informed, this especially as I do drive down rural areas a lot of the time. Thanks for the info on snopes.