DEAN SENSUI / DSENSUI@STARBULLETIN.COM Honolulu Police Department Maj. Ken Simmons, left, gave Japanese businessman Hisahiro Yamada a tour of the HPD dispatch operation center yesterday. Yamada inadvertently dialed 911 twice since January, and police officers were sent to check on him. He intends to donate $200 to a police-related charity in apology.

Visitor donates
$200 for accidental
911 calls

He misdials, trying to place
international calls, and is
surprised when police show up

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By Rod Antone
rantone@starbulletin.com

Japanese businessman Hisahiro Yamada said he was nervous when two Honolulu police officers came to his door in Waikiki in January. And he said he had a "strange" feeling, especially when the officers asked him if he could step outside.

"Japanese feeling, we are scared of policeman," Yamada explained.

But after a few minutes, Yamada realized the officers were checking on him because he had accidentally dialed 911 and then hung up after he realized his mistake. He was trying to make an international call and forgot to dial 011 first, as required.

Yamada said he did not know Honolulu police are required to check all "dropped" 911 calls.

"They were thinking of me, I realize this afterward. Very thoughtful," Yamada said. "In Japan such things don't happen."

Much to Yamada's embarrassment, he called 911 by mistake again last month. He felt so bad that he wrote a letter of apology to the Police Department and included a check for $200, a hundred dollars for each accidental call.

DEAN SENSUI / DSENSUI@STARBULLETIN.COM Maj. Ken Simmons returned a $200 check yesterday to Hisahiro Yamada, who wanted to apologize for two accidental 911 calls he made last month and in January.

"I'm so sorry, very embarrassed. ... I wrote a small check," he said.

Honolulu police estimate they receive about 1,700 dropped calls a week.

After receiving his letter, police invited Yamada to visit their headquarters yesterday to return his donation and gave him a tour of their communications operation.

"I appreciate his kindness, but we do get funds from the city," said a smiling Maj. Ken Simmons during a rare "check-returning" ceremony. "And we'd just like to let everybody know that there's no shame in staying on the line and telling the dispatcher that you made a mistake."

When asked how frequently Japanese visitors dial 911 by mistake, Simmons said he did not have the exact numbers but that "it happens quite often."

"I think we get about three or four a day. ... A lot of local people dial 911 by mistake, too."

Yamada, who has spent his winters in Hawaii for the past 10 years, said he will still try to donate the $200 to a police-related charity.

"Policeman work very hard but nobody say thank you nowadays," he said. "Security is very important. Hawaii people very lucky there is such a system."