re: #42 Mad Al-Jaffee

What happens if you call 911 from a pay phone?

Good question.

I mean, seriously. I assume most people, no matter how poor, will say fuck the expense if they have an immediate family emergency, but do you really want to stake lives on that? And how many people will take on a three-hundred-dollar bill to call because they heard something out the window? I’ve called 9/11 before to say that I heard a scream, or that there’s a guy passed out at the BART station. How likely is someone to do that if it’s going to cost them?