By Leila Merrill
FireRescue1/EMS1 Staff
NEW ORLEANS — A teenager who was robbed at gunpoint at a New Orleans McDonald’s and forced into a freezer called 911, where her mother answered the call, WDSU reported this week.
“Mama, please hurry up she’s got a gun,” said Tenia Hill, 16, on a 911 call recording.
Her mother, Teri Clark, is an assistant operations manager at the Orleans Parish Communications District.
“We are going to hurry, give me a description,” Clark replied.
“I was really scared because I would never imagined at my first job I would be getting robbed let alone having a gun pointed at me,” said Hill, who remained calm.
Clark was not supposed to be working when the call came through, but she had stayed late to help out.
“Where it broke me down was when my child said ‘We are in the freezer,’” said Clark. “While I was taking the call, tears were coming down my face. I am still trying to do my job, and I did the job to the best of my ability.”
The police arrived, and the employees were not injured.
“If I could clone Teri I would,” OPCD executive director Tyrell Morris said. “I would remind everyone we have people under the headset that have feelings and emotions. We are committed to your safety 365 days a year even when it’s our own child. Our staff vacancy rate has dropped by 25 percent and for the first time in over a year we are seeing an increase in the improvements of call answer times to meet national standard times over the prior year.”
In her 24 years with OPCD, Clark had never before gotten a call from a family member.
Clark’s daughter sang her praises.
“She is the GOAT. Greatest of all time, that is the greatest dispatcher I know,” said Hill.