Inside her mind

"911' How can I help you? Yes stop them from harassing me, they keep making so much noise that I can not sleep, please send help. "Ma'am are you hurt in any way ?". No, they keep playing and screaming into a loudspeaker, talking about me and my children. " Ma'am, this is not a 911 matter Please call in a sound complaint with the county's office". …. click the phone is hung up.

She continues to pace back and forth in her living room, hearing " you are no good, your family stinks, you are a loser" over and over again, she calls the county's office to submit her complaint. " Yes ma'am, this is Ms. X from 296 evergreen street apartment 4. Yes Ms. X, how can I help you today? It is the people who live under me, they are making a lot of noise. My baby can't sleep and they keep yelling out the window nasty, nasty things to me. Okay, we will put this in the system and someone will be out in about 4 hours to talk to you. The operator started to enter the information into the system as a red light started to flash. It reads 1000 complaints in the system, oh my gosh. Ma'am, it seems that you have called in this complaint many times before. Yes, no one comes out to help me, Oh I'm sorry about that I will dispatch someone out and put a rush on it. The operator who just started at the county's call center this evening hangs up the phone and looks at her manual. It states in these cases call the on-call supervisor, she does. As soon as she starts to explain the call, her supervisor stops her and states" is this call concerning Ms. X from evergreen?" yes how did you know, I'll come downstairs to the floor right now.

The call center supervisor enters the room and does not look too happy that someone dispatched a crew out to0 296 Evergreen. She asked who else was new on the floor tonight. About five people raised their hands, she then asked for the manager on the floor. Jose comes out of the office, " Jose you did not brief our newbies about Ms. X and someone dispatched a crew out to her apartment. This is your mess up not theirs, now all of you come here and listen to what I am about to tell you. As the operator sit there listening she could not believe that this is how another human being is treated. She replays the call in her mind and how scared the women's sounded. That she asked what happens after the crew is dispatched. The supervisors go on to say that in a normal case they will interview both parties and try to come to a reasonable agreement between both. She never really explained what would happen in Ms. X's case. She just said forward the call to a more experienced operator.

Before ending her shift for the night the operator wrote down Ms. X's number and address. She was going to check in on her own when she got a day off. The next day she started her shift and noted there was a note in the system regarding the crew that went out to evergreen. He stated that Ms. X did not open the door and all she did was yell from behind it " tell them to stop" but the crew did not hear any noise, they even went to the apartment below and knocked on the door. The young couple that opened the door asked what was the meaning of them knocking so early in the morning. They did not input the details of the conversation all it said was " complaint unfounded". This made her even more curious about the call, she deiced that during her break she will do some research on Ms. X . As she ate the salad she brought from home in the breakroom, she used her laptop and saw that Ms. X has put in the same complaint for over 3 years now. That she has been visited by main of the county's official offices due to her calling and putting reports. Since most of the information was restricted she could not see the detail. She could see that she has complied with the local Sheriff's department, the department of family services, and even the county civil courts. This did not stop the curiosity she was feeling, she deiced that she will stop by the apartment building and ask questions.

It was a beautiful Saturday morning, the operator heads to 296 Evergreen. She comes and it is a three-story building. Nothing out of the ordinary, she sees a gentleman sweeping the front of the building, she parks her car across the street and heads that way with her pen and pad in hand. " hello, good morning" He turns and stops and said good morning. My name is Madison, I am with the county's noise complaint department. As soon as she stated that, he turned and stated. Not this again, young lady it seems to me like you are a new one. There is no noise coming from her the neighbors, she is the one who bangs at all hours of the night. I have complained to the owner but he will not move her out. We have tried calling 911, but they take her to the local hospital for 24 hours and then let her go. Why would they take her to the hospital if she is not hurt? Lady are you serious right now? I have work to do, and Ms. X made a mess throwing garbage out her window all night. Madison asked to be let into the building so that she may interview the neighbors as well as Ms. X. He stated that the young couple is off at work and good luck getting Ms. X to open the door for her. Madison stops by the neighbor below her and knocks on the doors, there are only three apartments per floor. She knocks on apartment one and with no answer she slips a note on it with her contact information asking for a callback. She had to put in her number because this was not an official county investigation. Then in apartment two, which is apartment Mx. X states the noise is coming from, the same and leaves a note. She then knocks on apartment 3. An older woman opens the door and said " yeah what do you want" My name is Madison, and I would like to interview you regarding the woman that lives in apartment 4. " oh crazy Betsy, well come on in I have some much to tell.