Arlington 911 is a story from the first pilot special, which aired April 18, 1989 on CBS. It was later rebroadcast as the fourth story of the sixteenth episode of Season 1, which aired January 9, 1990. It was briefly recapped on the Season One Highlights Special from May 8, 1990. It airs in syndication on Episode 175S: "Arlington; Santa Save".[1]
Story[]
Eight-year-old Laura Hollingsworth thought she was dreaming when she opened her eyes and saw a man standing over the bed with a gun pointed at her. It was in Arlington, Texas, shortly before dawn on December 14, 1988, and she and her father, Dale, were asleep in his bed. Her brother, fourteen-year-old Buddy, was asleep down the hall. Unfortunately, she wasn't dreaming.
The intruder woke up Dale, forced him out of the room at gunpoint, and made him cut the phone wires. Laura lay in bed, terrified, and heard the intruder yelling to an accomplice. She screamed for Dale, and when he didn't respond, she ran into the living room and found him on the floor, scuffling with the robber. She raced to the phone in the kitchen, where luckily the wires had not yet been cut, and dialed 911.
"There's a man in my house!" Laura's voice quivered in fear. "He broke in with a gun. He's threatening-" "I have police officers on the way," responded Arlington Police Department Dispatcher Valerie Nelson, who heard the fighting in the background. "Stay on the phone."
As police officers sped to the scene, Nelson questioned Laura, but between her panic and the commotion in the background, Nelson was unable to make sense out of what was happening. "There's a gun and a knife," she screamed in tears. "Who has the knife?" asked Nelson. "My brother! He was going to kill my father if he didn't tell him where his wallet was!"
Laura of course meant the robber was going to kill Dale, but it came across to Nelson as if he and Buddy were fighting. "I think he's got the guy!" "Who's got the guy?" asked Nelson. "My dad." "Your father has-" "Buddy!" Laura let out a blood-curdling scream. "What's going on?" "Oh, God, Buddy!" she cried hysterically. "Please!" Nelson heard a shot fire. "He killed the guy!" Laura cried. "Your father shot the burglar?" asked Nelson. "No, Buddy did." "Your brother?" "He shot my dad, too!"
As the confusion mounted, police officers responded to what they thought was a domestic disturbance. Nelson told Laura to open the door for them who stood outside with guns drawn. But she didn't trust her, and Buddy thought they might really be the robber's accomplices. They could see his silhouette inside the house. He was holding a rifle, but they didn't realize he was a scared fourteen-year-old protecting himself and Laura.
"I need your help," Nelson told Laura sternly. "It's the police outside. Can you go to the door?" "No," she replied. "It's the good people outside!" urged Nelson. "Tell Buddy to come to the phone." She desperately explained to him that the police were afraid of him and that he had to come out before rescuers could safely get inside to help Dale. Finally, he dropped the rifle and came out, followed by Laura. Officers handcuffed him, unaware that he'd just saved Dale's life by killing the robber with the rifle.
Buddy was quickly released from custody. Dale recovered from the stab wounds inflicted by the eighteen-year-old robber, Douglas Spencer Collins,[citation needed] whom Buddy had shot to death. However, his accomplice, a man named "Leo", was never found. Dale and his family never spent another night in their home. "Ugh, what a call," Nelson recalls.
"If I had those calls every day, I could not do this job. You realize how close they came to losing it all. I literally didn't own anything of value that I would miss more than a half-minute," said Dale sadly. "I get upset thinking about that. I got all cut up, but, jeez, you know, I didn't want my kid to kill somebody." "For the rest of my life I'll always remember the day this happened," said Buddy. "It'll depend on the situation at the time if I'll feel happy, we're alive, or I'll feel sad that it happened."
Nelson feels that the key to the successful outcome was Laura. Despite her terror, she had the presence of mind to 911 and managed to remain calm and relay events over the phone. "If Laura hadn't called 911, if Buddy hadn't intervened, if the dispatcher hadn't known how to do her job, I would be dead. And I feel my children would be, too," said Dale.
In other media[]
"Arlington 911" is one of the 81 stories featured in the book Rescue 911: Extraordinary Stories by Linda Maron.
References[]
- ↑ Title Source for syndicated version: "Arlington; Santa Save" listing on Fancast
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