Emergency Dispatcher Praises Boy for Calling 911 During Break-In
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PHILIPPE HUGUEN/AFP/Getty Images(PORT ARTHUR, Texas) — A 12-year-old Port Arthur, Texas, boy maintained incredible poise on the phone with a 911 dispatcher after burglars broke into his house when he was home alone.
“Someone’s trying to break into my house,” Deion Murdock told a 911 dispatcher with the Port Arthur Police Department, according to ABC Port Arthur affiliate KBMT-TV. “I’m in my mother’s room right now. Please hurry.”
Murdock stayed on the line and followed the dispatcher’s instructions to hide in a closet after the intruders broke through a window and entered his home on Tuesday.
Murdock tried to remain brave and helpful as he provided the dispatcher with what he could hear from inside the closet, just steps away from the intruders once they entered his mother’s room.
“I’m going to have to whisper now because I think they’re coming in,” he said. “It sounds like there are multiple people.”
The dispatcher kept the boy calm on the line, checking on him to make sure he was still there as officers raced to the scene.
“You’re doing good, doing real good, doing perfect,” she told him. “Your mom’s going to be so proud of you.”
“This is actually the only thing I could think of,” Murdock said.
The dispatcher praised Murdock, calling him a “very, very smart young man” as she reassured him that he “did a good thing.”
Once officers arrived, they saw two men flee the home and run into the woods. The two suspects were later caught and arrested, KBMT-TV reported.
Despite the traumatic ordeal, Murdock was unharmed. His mother told KBMT-TV she had gone to the local housing authority because she wanted to move and she’d thought he would be safe at home.
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