Change your cell phone address and phone number when you move - here's why!

[Arwen]

This is not something I've received and am forwarding on. This is my own experience this morning, in Brookings, Oregon, on Jan. 8, 2011

Please pass it on to anyone whom you think may be able to use the information.

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I've never been one to be big into "cautionary tales,' but this morning I overheard a series of events that scared me to my toes.

As newspaper reporter and wife of a ham radio operator, I listen to the police scanner at work and home. This morning I was was awakened by multiple emergency tones, calling out police, ambulance and the fire department.Usually this means a big fire or accident, but this one was scarier.

The dispatcher went on to send all units to an apartment, where they believed a little boy could not wake his mommy. But they weren't sure.

How can that be?

The call came from an emergency dispatch in another county, a woman reported getting a phone call from a little boy (who sounded like he was about 3 or 4 years old), who was crying and said he could not wake his mother.

The boy called twice, and the call kept cutting off. Return calls to the phone are picked up by voice mail. The woman had the number on her caller ID, and police tracked the cell phone number,registered to an address in my town.

Police arrived at the address, to find two healthy adults, and no children. They said the woman and child who once lived there had moved about six months earlier. They didn't know where she went.

So, there is some little boy out there, unable to wake his mother, who may be a diabetic slipped into a coma, a drug user who overdosed, a drunk,or simply slipped and fell and is unconscious. No one knows why he couldn't wake her - and no one knows where they are. That poor little boy is alone with an unresponsive mother, and can't get help.

I've done it before, moved and, because I didn't want to change my number because all of my friends already knew it, and because I pay my bills online, I didn't bother changing my address with the phone company.

Apparently that is what this woman did, and it may cost her life. At very least,it has caused undue suffering to her little boy, because no one could find them.

If you have a cell phone and move, CHANGE THE ADDRESS. Do NOT keep your old number, it cannot tell emergency crews where to look, or even what county or state you are in. Get a local number that reveals your city.

And above all, teach your young children how to use your phone, especially if it is a complicated new smartphone, how to call 911, how to call family members or friends, and especially their new address, or at least a landmark to tell what they are near (near a specific park, etc).

I am hoping that the little boy finally found some help for his mother and is no longer alone. I will probably never know what happened to the boy and his mother. But maybe I can help make sure it doesn't happen to another young child.