If it's the emergency number you're calling, and the operator doesn't understand the pizza/repairman etc code, they're poorly trained/suited for the job.
If you call 911 and request a pizza, you might be pranking them or you might be under duress. Curious if they have a protocol for differentiating between these. I suppose if you give them your address and you're just joking you would be pretty dumb, not to mention incredibly immature to abuse emergency services.
They do, they typically will ask if you're in duress and you need assistance. You can say 'yes' without tipping the person you're with off. The problem is most people in duress won't think to call the cops.
Yep. Same thing with 1800xx911xx (and so on). I made that mistake as a kid with my parents' old unactivated phone. That's when I learned any mobile phone can call emergency services.
there's a couple youtube videos floating around where the operator initially is pissed off that somebody is pranking them, but catches on pretty quick. the tone of a kid being annoying and a victim in distress is pretty different.