Man to 9-1-1: “I need a hug and a warm cup of hot chocolate”

Posted on Thursday, September 2, 2010, 5:30 am by Paddy
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This destroyed me.

A homeless man who sneaked into a Beaverton hot tub, then called 9-1-1 to ask for towels, hot chocolate and a hug got cold comfort from police instead.

Mark Eskelsen called emergency dispatchers from his cell phone about 7:10 a.m. Sunday, identified himself as “the sheriff of Washington County,” and asked for medical help.

The dispatcher asked Eskelsen, who later admitted he wasn’t the sheriff, what was wrong.

“Well, I’ve been yelling for about an hour and a half,” Eskelsen said.

But the dispatcher already knew that. Neighbors had called 9-1-1, concerned about the man bellowing from a fence-surrounded pool in the 15000 block of Southwest Village Lane.

Eskelsen said he had been sitting in the water for about 10 hours. His towels had gotten wet, and his fingers looked like prunes.

“I just need a hug and a warm cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows in it,” he told the dispatcher.

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  • http://twitter.com/BowedOak Peg Keller

    At first listen, I thought it was funny and bizarre, but the more I listened the sadder it made me. Did someone actually lock this guy in the pool area for 10 hours? The dispatcher is amazing and deserves the highest respect for his patience and kindness and his ability to get the information he needed without judging or humiliating the caller. He should be training others. I hope the attention this is getting works out that the guy gets the help he needs.