Watch out for fake police cars, and it's still 911 for help in the USA

Yes, I'm sorry to say that there are imposters out there. Not many of them, to be sure. Most of the time it's really the law and you're busted. Maybe you should slow down a little. But if you're the victim, even one is too many, so if you find yourself being pulled over by an unmarked car and are not sure, especially if you're driving alone, do not hesitate to call for help rather than stop immediately. Real officers will understand if you do the right thing. And what's that? Easy, you call 911, right? Well, yes, but...

If you've been reading the helpful email that's been going around lately (and by lately I mean off and on and in various forms since 2002, but I just saw a new variation (Thanks, Aunt Anna!) for the first time this week), you may be a little confused about that, and with good reason. This email tells the story of a young lady who saw those dreaded flashing lights in her rear view mirror, but they were on an unmarked car, and having remembered the good advice of her parents (She was an exceptionally smart young lady!), rather than pull over right away she dialed (and this is the tricky part) #112 on her cell phone, and reached the police emergency dispatcher who advised her that there were no real police in that area and sent genuine officers to save the day by capturing the rapist who was trying to trick her with phony police lights.

So this all makes perfect sense (and in fact I recall a rash of these types of incidents a few years back out in Colorado) except for the #112 part. Who dials #112 for help anyway? Well, thanks to good old Snopes, and some extra googling (at the European Commission Information Society, for example), I learned that Europeans do. It seems that 112, without the #, is the standard emergency number in Europe.

Another version of the same story found on Snopes substitutes #77 for #112 (The Knockoff Pullover). That number does work in a few states, but not even close to everywhere. And Snopes thoughtfully includes a US map with state by state emergency number instructions (Highway Notification Numbers). It certainly seems definitive, and fairly recent (2008), yet the very explicit assurance in the email that This applies to ALL 50 states, meaning the #112, got the better of my curiosity, so I just had to pick up the phone, and sure enough the #112 didn't work, as I suspected. But never one to give up that easily, I gave it one more shot with plain 112, like the Europeans do, and by golly the friendly 911 operator picked up and was as surprised as I was that I reached him by dialing 112! Back to google, I discovered that 112 also works on GSM cell phones wherever they are.

So are you totally confused yet? Here's the bottom line. The warning is legitimate; this could happen to you, although it's unlikely. If you need to make that call in Europe, by all means use 112, but ditch the #. In the US, although 112 or any number of other options may work, 911 is a sure thing, so why not stick with that? Well, that's Mother's advice anyway. And you always listen to Mother, don't you? Sure you do.

Well listen to her one more time please, and have yourself a Happy Thanksgiving and salubrious travels wherever you go.