My Scanner saved me from ???

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es93546

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Any evidence for this claim?

I thought the same when I read it the first time. I just played along because I'm going to keep my flip phone and hopefully any replacements for the rest of my life. Smart phones are just too big to carry. I don't need to apologize or cite a conspiracy theory for making that choice. I already waste some time getting on this desktop computer, I don't need another device to enable more.

No doubt I would have one at work if I wasn't retired. The scheduling and reminding would work better than a small planner that I used to carry on the job. I also did all my activity logging by pencil and paper in that planner. A smart phone is smaller than the small sized planner. I could have typed my logs into the smart phone, then downloaded them onto my computer in the office. Sometimes I had court cases where my logs were sent to plaintiffs in civil cases and to defendants in criminal cases and it would be easier to do that electronically than to have them scanned. I no longer have to live in a fishbowl and have my work activities intensely scrutinized at times, thank goodness, 2 1/2 decades of that is enough for one person!

I think one of the most frequent calls I got on the radio was "Rec 21, Mammoth, are you near a phone!" At least half the time I wasn't close at all, not within several miles. I resisted getting a cell phone at work because I didn't want people in offices to call me all the time and I could concentrate on field duties.

I can say, getting back on topic, that having scanners often saved a great deal of time and increased effectiveness when I was working. I guess I could call the Midland mobile I had in my truck a scanner as well. Sometimes I would hear calls over the sheriff's net that I was much closer to than any of their deputies. In one case during the spring runoff after a big winter I had just filled up with gas in town and ready to go in quarters when a call came in about a missing toddler in the area of a swollen creek that was running fast and very deep. I was there before anyone. The mother was hysterical. I was able to get the incident size up and being the hasty search 10 minutes before a county deputy arrived on scene. Sheriff's deputies and I started to coordinate how the hasty search would go, who would be IC, etc., by talking on my BK handheld on the sheriff's net. They had a description of the young boy, the name and description of the parents and everything they needed to take over the incident. A miracle occurred when my hasty search found an off duty USFS wilderness ranger and her boyfriend hiking down the creek banks, who found the toddler standing in a still part of the stream, pointing at some bush on the other side and starting to walk toward the rapids to reach it. We all walked down to the mother with the little boy in the ranger's arms, where the first deputy had just arrived. Talk about an emotional reaction by the parents! It so nice to win one now and again, instead of telling the dispatcher that we had an 11-44.
 

scanmanmi

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My scanner saved me many speeding tickets.

I heard my buddy's name when they ran the plates on his bike. They told him there was a stolen bike like his but I heard the APB go out before and it was a completely different kind of bike.
 

gman65

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Living in Los Angeles, there is always something happening. My scanners were invaluable during the LA Riots and the Northridge earthquake to provide situational awareness. Add in multiple wildfires through the Malibu areas. I think I still have an old video tape of news coverage of a Malibu fire with scanner audio recorded on one of the audio channels. It's lost now but I had the same for the OJ Simpson pursuit. As they were coming up the street, SWAT had orders to "make sure" he was in custody. I totally missed the North Hollywood shootout though. Was working 12 hour days then.

The most important has been work related. I spend 3 years working nights in South LA on the Expo Light Rail project as a safety manager. We had multiple pursuits come through the work zone that went past the LA Coliseum and out to Culver City. I listened nightly and had the opportunity to warn crews working in street closures. Two crashed in work areas and thankfully none of our people were hurt during any of those incidents. Add to that all the shootings, murders and other incidents that never get reported on the news. It's sad how many there are. I've also purchased scanners for some of my people who work in South LA on projects so they can maintain situational awareness while working in bad neighborhoods.

Sadly, after listening to LAPD in South LA on a regular basis, everything else is boring. I've heard shootings, foot pursuits, fights and other major events that made for exiting times and kept me out of potentially bad situations. Fires last year here were pretty bad and came close. We were not in danger, but the situational awareness was important, helpful and comforting.
 

Anderegg

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My scanner saved me from being crushed to death by a semi on Interstate 8. I was responding to a semi that had been blown over by high winds, and the radio traffic indicated a specific location that I knew from previous blown over semis, could be accessed from the on-ramp of the freeway, rather than the main lanes. Typical news media response protocol is too pass the scene, and pull in front of it to park, leaving plenty of room for tow trucks and other vehicles that need forward access. Well, as I parked at the bottom of the ramp, and began to power on my live camera equipment, a second semi passed the crash scene, and proceeded to flip over right where I would have been parked if I had not been locked into the incident command/tac, and heard confirmation on the specific location. My little Toyota Prius would have been crushed with me inside, powering up my live gear, oblivious to what was coming...not a hypothetical, that really would have been my end.

What I ended up shooting

My alternate ending

Paul
 

zerg901

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My scanner didnt save me - but I tried to save Boston.

Bombs exploded at the Boston Marathon. City went into lockdown. Mad bombers were on the loose. I stayed up late. A chase started and went into Watertown. I was listening to BPD or BAPERN (police mutual aid system). Things were getting intense. No one else was awake in my apartment building or neighborhood. Arlington cops went screeching by heading to Watertown. I heard a loud bang off in the distance.

I picked up my phone and called the Coast Guard Boston emergency telephone number. Woman answered. I gave my name and address. Said I was listening to my scanner and hearing bombs going off. Are you aware of this? Who are you again? I gave my info again and asked - any chance we can get an armed helo into the air? She said - hang on. (I could hear men talking in the background as I was talking to her).

She came back on the line a minute or two later and said "we are already working on something". I said thanks and hung up.

(I am writing this from memory - some might not be 100% correct - but I am 95% sure that I was not the only person to make a call - pretty sure she said "we are already working on something" - or she said - "we are working on something" - and I read a report later stating that the feds had considering sending air support - something like that).

This is not the first time I have called Boston Coast Guard. About 20 or 30 years ago Boston had a multi alarm fire at 1 Beacon St iirc. Thats a 40 floor highrise. I called USCG and mentioned that I had read a 1970s Boston Globe article stating that BFD and USCG had a agreement regarding sending USCG helos to highrise fires in Boston. Something like that. I dont think the USCG helos flew that day. The fire got knocked down around the time that I made the phone call.

I would not recommend making calls like this unless you really know your stuff or know some good lawyers. I never got thrown in jail about any of this - but you never know what might happen tomorrow.
 
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It was about 1980.. a buddy of mine and I were pretty strung out on coke. We were out of money and we wanted to pick up some female companionship. So we decided to hold up a check cashing place, after we knocked out the clerk with an empty bottle of patron we took the money and fled. Little while later we heard a description of our selfs and a my buddies car over my scanner, apparently they had security cameras there. So we drove my buddies car into the river and fled to Canada. That is how my scanner saved my life.
 

KevinC

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It was about 1980.. a buddy of mine and I were pretty strung out on coke. We were out of money and we wanted to pick up some female companionship. So we decided to hold up a check cashing place, after we knocked out the clerk with an empty bottle of patron we took the money and fled. Little while later we heard a description of our selfs and a my buddies car over my scanner, apparently they had security cameras there. So we drove my buddies car into the river and fled to Canada. That is how my scanner saved my life.

That's odd. Your first post here in May of this year stated you "just recently got into the scanning hobby".


Maybe you're just making this up...or maybe you have a duplicate account and logged into the wrong one???
 

mmckenna

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Maybe you're just making this up...or maybe you have a duplicate account and logged into the wrong one???

Well, it is Christmas, and getting close to new year's day, lots of people love to come clean and start the year fresh.

I say "welcome" to our felonious friend and glad to hear his scanner helped him out.
 

dadandmemake2

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Creston, bc
My scanner saved me from being crushed to death by a semi on Interstate 8. I was responding to a semi that had been blown over by high winds, and the radio traffic indicated a specific location that I knew from previous blown over semis, could be accessed from the on-ramp of the freeway, rather than the main lanes. Typical news media response protocol is too pass the scene, and pull in front of it to park, leaving plenty of room for tow trucks and other vehicles that need forward access. Well, as I parked at the bottom of the ramp, and began to power on my live camera equipment, a second semi passed the crash scene, and proceeded to flip over right where I would have been parked if I had not been locked into the incident command/tac, and heard confirmation on the specific location. My little Toyota Prius would have been crushed with me inside, powering up my live gear, oblivious to what was coming...not a hypothetical, that really would have been my end.

What I ended up shooting

My alternate ending

Paul

Wow, I haven't been on for a bit, and I see this. I have to check the videos out!
 

PACNWDude

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Radio scanners have saved me from the bias in the mass media since childhood. This began with crystal type receivers and our local police and fire department radio transmissions, also used by the local newspaper/rag to get a jump on local "news."

Then there were several possible speeding tickets, traffic snarls, and general crime activity.

In the military, a vindictive team chief would try to get on-call people in trouble by not announcing arrival back on base for support personnel support. Having a scanner meant being able to tell via mandatory radio checks when he arrived back on base.....being able to show up before his "third" call to job control. Used to annoy this guy as to how people could arrive before they were called in via pager or radio.

Very handy in the days of analog cordless phones and keeping away from the rumors, gossip, and dissent in local neoghborhoods.

Still saves me now from many potential encounters with rioters, criminals, and first responders......scanners have been very useful. They also gave me a footing in radio maintenance and system administration. Just as a previous poster mentioned, I could have been flipping burgers instead if I did not catch the radio/technology bug.
 

Xray

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May 24, 2005
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613
Hmm, never used a scanner in my vehicle.
For the longest time mobile use was illegal in MI, been legal for quite some time but the thought never crossed my mind. My truck is already loaded to the brim with gadgets and I like to rock out while driving ... The only time I even come close to mobile use is at air shows or the vicinity of an air force base, I'll usually turn on my mobile still miles from the base to see if any action is going on.

So since I'm still alive, lack of a scanner in my vehicle has apparently not cost me my life yet.
 

Mudhog13

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Jul 28, 2010
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Massachusetts
My scanner got me in to all the cool parties in High School. Remember when we would have "Keggers" in the woods. I was the early warning system with my RadioShack Pro handheld scanner.
It also got me arrested for calling out a cop when I was pulled over. He tried to tell Dispatch that I was drunk. That time I was cold stone sober! Locked me up fora a disorderly.
 

n6hgg

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Dec 22, 2012
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Location
Arcata California
Avoided many situations but also I was a central factor in catching a hit-and-run fatal drunk driver by hearing the call go out, and then spotting the guy and calling the police while I kept him in sight. They nailed him and he ended up in prison. The victim who died was 17 years old.
 
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