Buster

No, Kids, The 911 Operator Is Not There To Settle Beefs With Daddy

Despite reports that a 10-year-old Illinois boy called 911 last week and complained about the dinner his father served, police tapes show that the child actually dialed the emergency number and hung up without speaking.

When the operator called the number back, the boy’s father, Stefan Cristoltean, answered the phone and explained that his son had been misbehaving. “I told him to call 911. He’s misbehaving in front of me and I told him, ‘Call them, let them come over here and see who’s right.’” And the child did just that.

Click below to listen to excerpts from the October 14 dispatch tape.

At one point on the tape, the 41-year-old Cristoltean told the operator, “Now he’s begging me to tell you not to come over here.” In the background, the boy can be heard wailing, “Don’t come over. Noooo.”

Cristoltean calmly explained, “I said, ‘You know what? Call 911 if you think that you have a disagreement with me and you’re right.’ And he called 911.” While beckoning the boy to return to the dinner table from his bedroom, Cristoltean told the operator, “He thinks that is just a joke this 911. I’m telling him that is not a joke and we have to impose some rules in the house and the have to follow the rules.”

When a Buffalo Grove Police Department officer was dispatched to the Cristoltean residence, the child noted that his dinner, “was edible but that he wanted something more to his liking,” according to an online police blotter, which notes, "Yes, we are a full service police department." Before departing the Cristoltean home, the cop advised on the proper use of the 911 system.

Comments (24)

The parenting is not the point here!!! Why didn't the cop come over and give the father a ticket? This is clearly abuse of the 911 system and we actually have laws against. it. If they are not willing to write a ticket, than why waste a cop's time by sending him over?
My reading of it is that the child called 911 and hung up; the operator called back because a hang-up call had been made to 911. I recall hearing the father answer "HELLO." Parents are in a difficult situation as children can readily say "I'll call 911 and say child abuse if you make me eat that," or something to that effect. The father may have said, "Go ahead, call 911 ... and see what happens." They and we all saw what happened. The child called 911 initially as I understand the article.
What, is everyone in this world supposed to sit around and state, "I can see you are upset, now Johnny PLLLEEEEAAASSSSEEE come and eat your dinner". Speaking from EXPERIENCE, If one pleads with their children to do something, the kid will not do it. When you are a parent, you don't compromise, make deals with the kid. The kid will take advantage of you. What's wrong is people with no children are taking the side of a bratty 10 year old, and not a responsible parent. (The parent knows the kid needs to eat). If the kid doesn't eat, no food for the rest of the night. IMHO if you have no children, you have no right telling others how to parent.
This should have been a 311 call
I don't have any kids but I do know what my Mom would have done...... First she would have said you don't like it then don't eat it...But you'll be having it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Second she would spank the brat for talking back and then Third she'd send the kid to their room w/out the T.V. or toys etc. Trust me my Mom was the CHAMP in getting you to do what was right in the first place. None of that calling the Cops or Grandma crap either. Oh yeah and I had the same type of treatment when I went to private school too. Those Nuns were way worse than Mom could have ever been.
Your mother sounds like a wonderful Nazi. As do many of the people who responded to this story. I wonder whether any of you adults would stand for having somebody sit something down in front of you that you didn't like to eat and tell you that you were going to eat it and nothing else. While it was over the top that the child called 911, it is certainly understandable that he has his own tastes in food. I would never have treated my child like that, and she has grown into a young woman who allows her son the same rights that she grew up with. Children are not your property or extensions of you. They are their own people with their own likes and dislikes. Your mom and your nuns sound like packs of child abusers to me.
Yes, I would stand for it. If I had not job, somebody let me live at their house and eat their food, while going to work to support me. I would eat whatever they chose to give me, and I would be grateful for it. Just because you chose to spoil your child, doesn't make everybody else evil for not doing so. Nazis? Really?
It sounds like both the kid and the dad both need to be taken to the woodshed and then grounded.
Netah: You read like a psycho-babble busy body. Why should someone intervene in a families dinner time?
The father's voice indicates a passive aggressive individual aiming for power struggles. Kid is catching on a playing accordingly. I'd get some kind of counseling or intervention happening there ASAP .