Crowd behavior, it seems, was not the problem. Instead, it was one clueless spectator armed with a cellular telephone. The fan's phone, carried in a fanny pack around her waist, had a pre-programmed, one- touch button for dialing 911. Each time the phone was jostled, or when she stood to cheer, the button rang the police--roughly 40 times in all.
While the dispatch operator could hear the stadium noise in the background, there was no one on the other end of the line. Dispatchers had determined the caller's address and phone number and continually called back, but there was no answer. "We could hear the people cheering, the band playing and the horns honking," says Assistant Police Chief Rick Hoyt. "We were getting ready to get on the stadium public address system to ask whose phone it was."
That turned out to be un necessary. By the second half kickoff, the phone's battery ran out. "People really need to read the owner's manual. I'm sure somebody who designed the button thought it was a good idea, but in reality it could be causing problems for 911 systems," says Hoyt.
As for the serial caller, her comeuppance came later when Fayetteville police informed her of the problems she had caused. "She was so embarrassed and upset with herself," says Hoyt. "She wanted to know if we were going to arrest her."
