Eavesdropping is frowned upon by many and typically nothing good comes out as a result - except this time. A distressed person who fell off a kayak in a cold river was rescued when someone eavesdropped on the 911 phone call.
A distressed kayaker was recently saved from drowning in a seemingly obscure river location by the parents of a 911 operator after the operator overheard the emergency phone call.
A partner that had been kayaking with the victim called 911 and was connected to an operator. On the call the frantic caller told the operator, "We were kayaking. … My friend went over, but she was able to pull herself up onto a piling."
Raedyn Grasseth a fellow dispatcher at the Wahkiakum County Police Department in Washington was walking by when and overheard the conversation. She quickly lit up and gave her mother a call.
"I heard my partner taking the call. I was listening to him, overhearing what was going on and realized the area he was talking about I knew exactly where it was," Grasseth told reporters in Portland, Ore. "It was basically right where most of my family was at that moment."
Grasseth's family was out celebrating Easter Sunday with other relatives at a home near cold waters of the Columbia River, where the stranded kayaker was hanging on with all her might. They were celebrating without Grasseth, who has been a dispatcher for 15 years.
As soon as Grasseth's mother, Cynthia Faubion, received the phone call from her daughter she decided to spring into action and help.
Wahkiakum County Undersheriff Steve Marshall told reporters that Faubion, who is a 30-year veteran of the county's paramedic squad, got into a kayak and made it to the riverbank in seven minutes. Her response time was faster than that of a response team, which would have been somewhere between 15 to 30 minutes to get to the river from their marina.
"It was very forceful water rushing through, strong currents. The water was 44 degrees," Faubion told reporters.
Faubion was not alone in the rescue. Her husband rode besides her in a motorized vehicle. And as a team the two managed to pull the woman to safety.
"I kayaked out to make sure the person was OK and be sure, just in case she would slip and go back into the water," Faubion told reporters.
When the rescued woman was offered first aid, she declined. Per the sheriff’s office, she also declined to give her name to officials.
Eavesdropping is not always polite but in certain situations it’s appropriate. "Sometimes eavesdropping is good, especially when you're going to save a life," Faubion told reporters.
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