In an unusual twist on criminal activity, a woman in Florida contacted the authorities to report her own illicit actions. On May 31, Christy Turman dialed 911 after breaking into a closed car dealership, Val Ward Cadillac in Fort Myers, with the intention of committing theft. During the call, Turman openly admitted to the dispatcher that she was attempting “to steal a car that’s not legally mine.”
The situation took an even stranger turn when the police arrived at the scene. Turman explained to the officers that she believed she was playing a part in “a game of Black Ops to steal a car” and thought that by confessing her plan to the police beforehand, it might somehow legalize her actions. At the scene, police confirmed that a door of an Audi A5 had been left open, but thankfully, no vehicles were reported stolen as they intercepted Turman before she could complete her intended crime. Although she avoided a theft charge, Turman was not let off entirely, as she was charged with trespassing on the property.
Situations as bizarre as Turman’s are not entirely unheard of. In a similarly peculiar incident back in September, a 911 dispatcher received a call from a person who was shocked to find a pilot had landed in their backyard. The pilot had ejected from his aircraft due to an “aircraft to failure” and managed to safely parachute down, although the $80 million jet he was operating was not recovered and was presumed to have crashed after a debris field was discovered near Indiantown, South Carolina.
The audio recordings from this incident reveal the pilot’s interaction with the dispatcher, explaining the likely crash scenario and his uncertainty about the jet’s location. He mentioned he had fallen about 2,000 feet before ejecting. Subsequently, the Marine Corps pilot was transported to the hospital at approximately 2pm that day for evaluation.
These extraordinary calls to 911 highlight some of the unexpected and outlandish situations dispatchers and law enforcement officers have to deal with, from self-reported crimes to unexpected backyard landings.