‘Breaking Bad’ Viewers In Connecticut Call 911 After Cable Outage
By Empress Eve
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Tuesday, August 20th, 2013 at 1:00 pm
Oh Breaking Bad, what you do to people.
Several Breaking Bad viewers in southwestern Connecticut called 911 in a panic on Sunday night after a cable power outage occurred during the airing of the popular AMC show, according to the NY Daily News.
Did you get that? People dialed 911 – the number reserved solely for emergency, life and death situations – to find out WHY their cable went out.
According to audio from a 911 call obtained by News 4 New York, one caller said “I am just trying to figure out what’s going on. We have no TV.” When the operator replied that 911 is for emergencies only, the called said “I know that, I know that.” When asked if this was a life-threatening situation, the caller responded, “No, we’re just trying to find out what’s going on.” After the operator suggested the caller contact her cable provider, the caller replied “I tried that.”
Fairfield police department had to take to their Facebook account to remind people that losing their cable services is NOT a valid reason to call 911, stating that the cable outage was “neither an emergency or a police related concern.” Sadly, the 911 operators had to tell callers to contact their local cable provider, in this case Cablevision, in regards to their lost TV access. Commenters on the Facebook status, which has since been taken down, reportedly left a wide range of responses, from outrage that people would misuse the 911 emergency line for such purposes, to people stating the importance of Breaking Bad, the AMC drama about a mild-mannered chemistry teacher turned ruthless crystal meth-making drug kingpin, now in its fifth and final season.
The police also had to stress that “misuse of the 911 system may result in arrest.”
Since the police department’s Facebook post was removed, we’re not able to assess the range of “crazy” of the commenters, but it is the Internet, so we can take an educated guess. Also, I can understand if perhaps some of the callers were worried that there was some kind of state of emergency, but according to reports, callers were stating that they had no TV. Seriously, is Cablevision so awesome out in Connecticut that they never lose cable access there? Or are Breaking Bad fans in southwestern Connecticut just plain crazy?
Cable service was reportedly restored to the area after a few hours, so see Connecticuters, no need to panic. Even if access had not been so quickly returned, this isn’t 1978 where once an episode of your favorite show airs you have to wait until summer hiatus reruns to see it again. They constantly replay shows on cable until you start hating them; plus, you know, it’s 2013, a time when viewers can watch the episodes through several streaming services, like Vudu, Amazon Instant Video, and even through AMC.com shortly after their cable premiere.
Basically, if your cable goes out – no matter what you’re watching – DON’T call 911.
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