Isn't 911 a US/North America only thing?

Maybe he didn't know the country code for 911 if it wasn't a local call he'd have to enter it.

My car battery was dead this morning after my son left the wipers on. I turned everything off and waited 10 mins. and rejuvenated to the point it would start. I do not live in the Andes.

Even without a sim-card (or whatever) in them, my (Asutralian, GSM) phones will still dial emergency numbers. Heck, when I'm out of range of my provider but in a competitor's service area it automatically switches to "emergency only" mode.

Most Sundays I drive up a 10,000' tall mountain on the outskirts of Tucson, Arizona. There's no cel phone service up there, even though there are several cel phone antennas down below, less than ten miles away as the crow flys. This guy had service in the Andes? And since when do you cold soak a battery to increase its charge? Has Snopes tackled this one yet?

Regards,
Paul Woodford

I wondered that too, but don't all phones ALWAYS dial *911? Even if you cancel your service or something? AAA has a phone they sell that only can be used to call *911.

I believe I read that the reason he didn't call 911 was that it was a prepaid phone and he didn't have any minutes left -- the telemarketer was actually trying to sell him more minutes!