Current Events > Call 911 for a wellness check, or I just go over there and knock?

(+) Yeah! (+)

My neighbor is an older guy (like 70ish) and lives alone with just his dog. It snowed a lot about three days ago, and I cleared his driveway. Since then, there's no sign of him (no snow tracks of cars or footsteps of him and his dog).

I'm not that friendly with him (nor am I unfriendly with him); just a neighbor. Kind of worried if he's okay... Should I just go over there and ring the doorbell, or just call 911 for a wellness check?

Go knock or leave them alone.

If you shoveled his driveway youre clearly not a stranger.

divot1338 posted...

Go knock or leave them alone.

If you shoveled his driveway youre clearly not a stranger.

I mean I just used my snowblower (didn't shovel); felt bad for the grandpa lol.

Do you guys not have phones?

Go check yourself.

That's a far better option than sending a couple of armed thugs who are just itchin' for an excuse to pull their gun out.

a-c-a-b posted...

Go check yourself.

That's a far better option than sending a couple of armed thugs who are just itchin' for an excuse to pull their gun out.

There it is. only took to post 5

I know a lot of elderly people who refuse to leave their homes when theres a lot of snow/cold outside. Is there a way you can contact his family? I would go check myself and if you still havent heard from him in a couple days I would call for a wellness check.

k1zzl3_82 posted...

There it is. only took to post 5

Where are they wrong?

Just go knock, I'd say. If he doesn't respond, you can call for aid. If he does respond, ask him over for a cup of coffee or tea.

You just might make the oldtimer's day with that.

Questionmarktarius posted...

Do you guys not have phones?

Brah, I don't even know the guys name, let alone his phone number. I just say hi while cutting grass or something lol.

And for others: okay, I'll just walk over and knock. I thought it might be awkward or weird or seem like I'm stalking him if I did that, but I guess from most people's POV here, it doesn't seem creepy.

a-c-a-b posted...

Go check yourself.

That's a far better option than sending a couple of armed thugs who are just itchin' for an excuse to pull their gun out.

The old man would be fine as long as he's white

IdiotMachine posted...

Brah, I don't even know the guys name, let alone his phone number. I just say hi while cutting grass or something lol.

fair.

I didn't know my neighbors moved out until someone else moved in.

Don't call 911, it's not an emergency. If you have to call the police, call the general line. Or, better yet, just go knock on his door. He's less likely to be murdered that way.

IdiotMachine posted...

Brah, I don't even know the guys name, let alone his phone number. I just say hi while cutting grass or something lol.

And for others: okay, I'll just walk over and knock. I thought it might be awkward or weird or seem like I'm stalking him if I did that, but I guess from most people's POV here, it doesn't seem creepy.

Just make it about the cold if it seems weird.

Ask if he and the dog got through all right.

He's fine. He said thanks for worrying about him lol. He said he doesn't like walking out in the cold, so he's just been letting his dog out at his backyard.

I'm glad everything worked out.

I can't believe people actually think the police would shoot someone on a 911 call for an elderly wellness check.

That didn't even happen to Ekita.

Glad you overcame your hesitation.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

inb4 people make excuses like he had a gun, what was the cop supposed to do

There's always a chance that if you call the police for anything, someone is going to get shot.

Remember, everyone... do not take anything atmasabr says seriously. That user has frequented maga board spin offs and only ever shitposts, plus the account spent most of 2021 in purgatory.

Machete posted...

Remember, everyone... do not take anything atmasabr says seriously. That user has frequented maga board spin offs and only ever shitposts, plus the account spent most of 2021 in purgatory.

Atmasabr has incredibly thin skin and blocked me because I repeatedly poked holes in his dumb pro Trump conspiracy theories like the Hunter Biden nonsense. Atma was actually delusional enough to believe that fake news

k1zzl3_82 posted...

There it is. only took to post 5

Do you happen to know the amount of wellness checks that end up with people dead? It's more than zero.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

You could not have picked a worse example to try to paint the responding cop as some trigger happy psycho looking to blow people away.

Chronister said the deputy expected the situation to be of a medical nature, but it quickly turned. The sheriff said Ehrich emerged from behind a locked door with a gun.

"Sir, I just want to make sure you are OK," Castillo can be heard saying on body camera video. "Sir, please put the gun down. Sir, please put the gun down."

The body camera footage shows Deputy Castillo repeatedly pleading with Ehrich to stand down.

Ehrich told her to come out in the open and sit down.

She repeated, "Sir, put the gun down, please."

Ehrich replied, "Sit down or Ill blow you right out of [the water]."

Deputy Castillo continued her pleas.

"Sir, I dont want to do this. Please put the gun down," she said.

As Ehrich pinned the deputy into a spare room, she fired off shots.

evilpresident posted...

Just go knock, I'd say. If he doesn't respond, you can call for aid. If he does respond, ask him over for a cup of coffee or tea.

You just might make the oldtimer's day with that.

This. You know him at all, just give a knock, during the hours you would expect to see him.

...I had a 'wellness check' done on me, and it can actually be traumatizing if done wrong.

SiO4 posted...

...I had a 'wellness check' done on me, and it can actually be traumatizing if done wrong.

that sudden realization "fuck me, I'm not wearing a shirt - this is a COPS episode, isn't it?"

Gonna nominate TC as neighbor of the year right now.

Questionmarktarius posted...

that sudden realization "fuck me, I'm not wearing a shirt - this is a COPS episode, isn't it?"

Actually the first thing I said, once I realized what was going on was....Okay, let me get dressed...
I was still in bed. I talked about here on CE. The whole thing started over a fallen tree, and an open door.

It was a complete overreach. Certainly an infringement on my 4th Amendment rights.

k1zzl3_82 posted...

There it is. only took to post 5

Cops have literally killed people doing these checks. He's not wrong.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

Well, you just created one of the best examples in GameFAQs history of why you should always read the article you're going to share / comment on.

IdiotMachine posted...

He's fine. He said thanks for worrying about him lol. He said he doesn't like walking out in the cold, so he's just been letting his dog out at his backyard.

Nice

Good thing you checked on him. He might have died if police got involved

I'm sorry but I wouldn't risk the old man getting shot by the police, please go check yourself

If a neighbor checked on me like that I'd be suspicious.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


I will not concede the point. If anything, perhaps you should have warned the topic poster that HE could have been shot dead by the neighbor.

But this board didn't.

Just knock on his door.
If he doesn't respond, just come back in a day or two and knock again (keep in mind that he might not open the door because he's on the toilet or taking a nap or whatever. Hell, he might be watching a movie or checking out porn or whatever and doesn't want to answer the door. It might take a few knocks a few days from now to get him to open the door when he is fully available to open the door, but do NOT call the fucking cops on him over a wellness check. I guarantee he will be pissed the hell off if you do that to him).

Why didn't the board suggest that he could have been shot dead, yet suggested that the elderly neighbor could have been shot dead? It's the same issue.

SavageGlum100 posted...

Just knock on his door.
If he doesn't respond, just come back in a day or two and knock again (keep in mind that he might not open the door because he's on the toilet or taking a nap or whatever. Hell, he might be watching a movie and doesn't want to answer the door. It might take a few knocks a few days from now to get him to open the door, but do NOT call the f***ing cops on him over a wellness check. I guarantee he will be pissed the hell off if you do that to him).

The whole idea behind calling the police to do a welfare check is in case such action is necessary to save his life, such as if the neighbor fell and was unable to get up, or had some other medical crisis that wasn't lethal but prevented him from helping himself. Without assistance, he would die of thirst or exposure.

The question in play is not if to involve law enforcemenet, but when.

atmasabr posted...

Why didn't the board suggest that he could have been shot dead, yet suggested that the elderly neighbor could have been shot dead? It's the same issue.

Maybe because there aren't any articles of that happening but there is one of cops killing a man doing a wellness check. Keep on chuding.

RenescoStCewl posted...

Maybe because there aren't any articles of that happening but there is one of cops killing a man doing a wellness check.

Because the neighbor displayed a firearm and threatened to shoot the police. The same could have just as likely happened to the topic poster, only with a more lethal result.

IdiotMachine posted...

He's fine. He said thanks for worrying about him lol. He said he doesn't like walking out in the cold, so he's just been letting his dog out at his backyard.

Didn't see this till now.
Glad everything is fine, which leads me to this...

atmasabr posted...

The whole idea behind calling the police to do a welfare check is in case such action is necessary to save his life, such as if the neighbor fell and was unable to get up, or had some other medical crisis that wasn't lethal but prevented him from helping himself. Without assistance, he would die of thirst or exposure.

The question in play is not if to involve law enforcemenet, but when.

I get what you saying, but I STRONGLY stand behind using a wellness check from the cops as an absolute last resort. One should actually try KNOCKING on their door or CALLING (if they can) and understanding that they might NOT answer because they are busy with something (toilet, shower, nap, movie, porn, they might even be too busy looking through Gamefaqs on an FAQ for an old King's Quest game from 1984 which is pissing them off, etc). But if you come back at a later time and knock / call, they might eventually pick up/ open up.

And that's assuming the person isn't ghosting the other person for whatever reason (it might be a permanent ghosting where they refuse to talk to that person ever again, or it could be a temporary ghosting because one person needs sometime alone and needs a break from people in general but will in the future reconnect with everyone).

Calling the cops for a wellness check should be used as an absolute last resort and it's something that is NOT needed 99% of the time. I'm not 100% against it since there are special circumstances where it might be needed, but it should be used as an absolute last resort under a desperate situation.A lot of people freak the fuck out when they hear someone bursting through their door and might not know it's the cops if they are in their bedroom taking a nap and that's when major problems can occur (as already gone over in this topic).

Going to leave these here
https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/19/us/wellness-check-police-shootings-trnd/index.html
https://theintercept.com/2020/08/22/police-shooting-wellness-check-sandy-guardiola/

SavageGlum100 posted...

Calling the cops for a wellness check should be used as an absolute last resort. A lot of people freak the fuck out when they hear someone bursting through their door and might not know it's the cops if they are in their bedroom taking a nap and that's when major problems can occur (as already gone over in this topic).

Been there. Though they never entered the bedroom.
But they knocked on the bedroom door.

Why send the cops to a wellness check, instead of EMTs?

What did you tell him after you knocked?

SavageGlum100 posted...

I get what you saying, but I STRONGLY stand behind using a wellness check from the cops as an absolute last resort. One should actually try KNOCKING on their door or CALLING (if they can) and understanding that they might NOT answer because they are busy with something (toilet, shower, nap, movie, porn, they might even be too busy looking through Gamefaqs on an FAQ for an old King's Quest game from 1984 which is pissing them off, etc). But if you come back at a later time and knock / call, they might eventually pick up/ open up.

And that's assuming the person isn't ghosting the other person for whatever reason (it might be a permanent ghosting where they refuse to talk to that person ever again, or it could be a temporary ghosting because one person needs sometime alone and needs a break from people in general but will in the future reconnect with everyone).

Calling the cops for a wellness check should be used as an absolute last resort and it's something that is NOT needed 99% of the time. I'm not 100% against it since there are special circumstances where it might be needed, but it should be used as an absolute last resort under a desperate situation.A lot of people freak the fuck out when they hear someone bursting through their door and might not know it's the cops if they are in their bedroom taking a nap and that's when major problems can occur (as already gone over in this topic).

^THIS.
On a side note, the earlier King's Quest games from the 1980's are fucking brutal. Forgetting to pick up an item early in the game can fuck you over late in the game in a permanent way to the point where you have to restart the entire game.