It’s true. Don’t worry though, it was an accident.
I’ll explain. I was listening to some messages on my mobile, as you do, and at one point I tried to delete a message but, seeing as this was the first time I had used the service on my new phone, I pressed five. Before pressing 5, I had pressed 1, then, before that 1, which equals 115, if you are still with me. Now, 115 is the emergency number for the fire service here in Italy, and my phone cleverly, not, looked up the number and dialled it for me automatically. Some kind of auto number look up function – which I shall switch off, if I can.
Stop reading, start speaking
Stop translating in your head and start speaking Italian for real with the only audio course that prompt you to speak.
Anyway, I’m sure you can imagine my surprise when I heard the man on the end of the line say ‘Pompieri’ (Firemen). I sort of blurted out an apology, and explained that I thought my phone was to blame (at that moment, I had not understood what had happened). Instead of being cross, the man told me that it had happened to him too!
The moral of the story: When in Italy and navigating a voice menu system on your mobile, watch out for the auto number search function!
PS I wonder just how much emergency services’ time is being wasted by this mobile ‘function’?
