I have had many shorts in lines... never once has it dialed 911.
I never would have believed it either until it happened to me TWICE.
At my own house, had a line that was out of service due to an intermittent short somewhere outside for several days. Usual story with Verizon, "we'll get to it". I never pressed them because I have other lines. The resistance of the short varied, sometimes the line would go off hook for extended periods (pick up the line and you will hear the "please hang up and try your call again" message and alert tone), other times there was no battery at all.
And no, I don't even have an alarm.
Well, one night at about 1AM the doorbell rings and there are two cops standing there, couple more are walking around the outside with flashlights. "What's the problem, someone called 911" they said. Must be a mistake I said, as they looked at me like I was beating my wife or something.
Couple of days later exactly the same thing happens at about 4AM. This time I questioned THEM as to what number the call came from. It was the line that was out of service! I brought them in and picked up that line and asked them to make a call on it. I told them that that line has been out of service for several days and nobody could have made a call on it. There are three others that work right there in front of you if anybody needed to do so.
So, what is the probability of an intermittent short on the line producing a 9-1-1 sequence with the right timing? Obviously quite high.
-Hal
