Dubai: Dubai Police recently persuaded a 15-year-old boy, who called 901 reporting that he was about to commit suicide because his family had told him that he was not their son, not to go ahead with the extreme act.
The boy was depressed as he was also told by his mother that the family had found him near a garbage bin.
Major Dr Mohammad Ali Obaid, director of the call centre in the police’s Command and Control Department, said an operator with the non-emergency number 901 received the call from the Arab teenager who threatened to jump from atop a building in Abu Hail area.
“His call was very important because he was reporting that he would commit suicide. We discovered that the family was only kidding with him when they said he was found next to a garbage bin but he took it seriously and decided to attempt suicide,” Maj Ali Obaid said.
A police patrol was rushed to the building while the call centre officer, Mariam Al Marzouqi, continued talking to the distressed teen until the patrol arrived.
“She kept talking to him until he started liking the conversation with her as he had been missing talking with his family. She convinced him not to commit suicide,” Maj Obaid added.
Police officers took the boy to his parents who were not aware that he was angry with them because of their kidding and that he had called the police.
“His mother told him that she was kidding with the children and never expected that her son would take the ribbing seriously. She told him that she loved him very much and apologised to him for the hurting words,” he said.
Major Ali Obaid said that some 38 police officers work in the non-emergency call centre round the clock to answer all questions and solve problems and refer the emergency calls to 999.
“Our duty is to help all callers. We receive many strange and serious calls all the time but we have trained staff to answer the questions and solve problems,” he added.
