Hello, Is there an Emergency?

Jack LOVES to play with our phone - he especially loves to push the buttons. He hasn't called anyone on it (yet). We were excited about this interest and decided to allow him to play with some of our old cell phones. No harm, right?

Well, just the other day my friend Rachel was telling me that she was allowing her daughter, Kalea, to play with her Blackberry when it is locked. The only thing is that when she locks her Blackberry there is still an "Emergency Call" feature that you can hit to make an emergency phone call. Well, Kalea, in her delight of pushing buttons and rolling the "pearl" unintentionally made an emergency call. We laughed, and made mental notes about being very careful while letting our children play with phones.

The next day I arrived home to find Jack playing with his cell phones. Jeremy mentioned that he charged up the old phones so Jack could hear the sounds and see the lights. Sounds like a good idea. There was no SIM card, so calls couldn't be made. I shared this funny story with Jeremy as a word of caution. Just as I was finishing the story, I heard someone's voice on the phone, confused I looked at the screen to see "Emergency Call." Immediately I picked up the phone to hear a women on the other end saying, "Hello, Is there an emergency?" I assured her that there was not and that our son had called by mistake. I apologized and hung up as soon as I could. We took the phones away and let them lose their charge. He now plays with uncharged phones and seems to be just as happy to push buttons without lights and sound! :)

So, please make a mental note: charged cell phones without service or a SIM card can make emergency phone calls.