There was a pretty amazing story that came through theHerald this week about how Monica Andrews, a dispatcher in the Tecumseh PoliceDepartment, followed up on some 911 “hangup” calls that the Lenawee CountySheriff Department had reported. The calls originated from an address on UnionStreet. When the Sheriff Department answered, they could hear someone screamingin another language. Miracle one may have been their taking it another step bycontacting the TPD. After officers were dispatched a couple things happened.They learned that the home’s current resident was at work. They also learnedfrom a neighbor that a woman, who was thought to be Chinese, lived there acouple of years ago. (Miracle two? That someone remembered that and shared itwith police?) Back at the dispatch center, Monica put two and two together –the cries from the calls seeming to come from someone speaking a foreignlanguage and the fact that someone who might have spoken a foreign languageonce lived at the address that registered with the cell phone. She obviouslyalso knew a little about how cell phone 911 calls can be dispatched from thearea where the phone’s service originates rather than where you are, somethingthat surprised me and may be news to others as well.

Monica then further pursued the matter by doing some modernday searching through Google and a law enforcement network the department hasaccess to. Through this above and beyond effort, compared to what many peoplewould have done, (perhaps Miracle number three), Monica was able to locate theConnecticut address where the woman was now listed as residing, and able tocall the corresponding police department, who sent State Police officers. Whatthey found was a bleeding woman who had been stabbed several times. More ofthis story can be found on our main website, including the arrest of the man anarticle from a Connecticut newspaper stated was the victim’s husband. The womanwas rushed to the hospital and apparently is going to be all right, thanks tothe series of little miracles (including that the woman had access to a cellphone in the first place and was still able to use it).

We, actually, were alerted to the fact that an attemptedmurder incident had a Tecumseh connection by a reader who sent an Email to thepaper with a link to the Connecticut article. Interestingly, another reader calledour editor earlier in the day, telling about something he’d overheard that hadto do with the Tecumseh Police Department somehow being involved with a case inanother state and having to do with cell phones. But we hadn’t had time tofollow up on the sketchy information he was able to provide. A little later inthe day, an Email arrived in my mailbox that alerted me to Monica’s role in theevent, so I called her. She was pretty low key about the whole thing, notexactly shrugging it off, but not seeking attention for her actions either. Sheprovided more details so we could share the story with others. I just want tosay that I think Tecumseh is fortunate to have people like Monica and theofficers, as well as the Sheriff Department workers, that didn’t just chalk upthese calls to pranks and took the time and effort to follow them through. Ithink a woman in Connecticut might be sort of grateful for that, too.