Sony's PlayStation Network was shut down during Christmas after a hacker group infiltrated the company's system and brought everything to a grinding halt. As you might imagine, it was a major pain in the ass for people who wanted to log onto the network and play their videogames.
But this was no ordinary day. This was Christmas, when tensions and anxiety are at DEFCON-1, particularly among kids and teens. So while most people just sat and waited until Sony fixed the issues, one Palm Beach teenager decided to take matters into his own hands.
And by "take matters into his own hands," we mean he dialed up the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office 911 system to report the network outage and figure what the hell was going on. Being unable to build your Minecraft world is exactly the same as a house caught on fire, for crying out loud!
According to WPTV, the teen dialed 911 on Saturday and asked the dispatcher about the PlayStation Network outage.
"Do you know about the whole thing that's going on with the PlayStation Network?" the kid asked, according to the call's transcript, released by the Palm Beach Sheriff's Office. "I was wondering, do you guys know anything about that?"
Ever helpful, the dispatcher at first tells the kid to wait while she asks around. Then comes back on the line and says, "Yeah, I guess some people have been reporting it."
It's not clear if the dispatcher was talking about other 911 calls, but this seems to be the only one reported so far.
The kid, possibly realizing he had screwed up, came up with some line about someone being arrested for the network being down.
The dispatcher then told the kid to try calling Sony and told him he might be able to find a customer service number on the game console.
Not long after, the PBSO Twitter feed came to life, admonishing anyone who decides that 911 is who you call when you can't get your Halo to work properly.
The first part of the tweet was simple and to the point. It describes the call, then says that the PBSO is a law enforcement agency and knows nothing about fixing no videogame issues. Also, 911 is a serious matter and should be dialed only for real, life-threatening emergencies.
Then, the tweet says that maybe instead of calling 911 over videogame issues, kids should go outside or read a book:
No we don't know when they will restore service to Xbox or Playstation. Please Dial 9-1-1 only for emergencies. pic.twitter.com/nQCeWEEFP1
— PBSO (@PBCountySheriff) December 28, 2014Sassy!
According to various reports, the network outage was orchestrated by a hacker group that calls itself Lizard Squad. The Sony outage lasted three days before finally being fixed.
The FBI is investigating the outage.
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