10-Year-Old Calls 911 With Math Emergency

"Hey, it's not really an emergency," a 10-year-old Wisconsin caller said after dialing 911. But he needed help on what he said was an eighth grade-level math problem. "I'm sorry to waste your time." The boy apparently didn't know where to turn. "He stated his family 'wasn't very good at math either,'" a Facebook post by the Shawano County Sheriff's Office says. Kim Krause, a dispatcher, explained the rules for emergency calls but had some time and offered to help, WFRV reports. "I'm not very good with math, sweetie," she said, "but I can try!"

"He gave this long problem with decimals," Sheriff George Lenzner told ABC's Good Morning America; the problem involved grasping how dividing by 10 relates to finding one-tenth of a number. Stumped, Krause asked a deputy who was near the child's home if he could help. Chase Mason wasn't busy and agreed to stop by, though he later wrote in his report, "Personally, I am also not overly proficient when it comes to math." Mason sat down with the student and solved the problem, per UPI. Mason left the boy with his business card and said that law enforcement is always available to help, but that 911 is for more for life-threatening emergencies. Lenzner praised his department's response. "I don't want our youth to ever be afraid of law enforcement," he said. (More 911 call stories.)