Teri Clark is a veteran emergency dispatcher in New Orleans who long ago taught her daughter that she couldn’t call 911 to talk to mom. When Clark’s daughter’s phone number came up on her screen, she knew something was up. Clark said, “New Orleans 911, what’s the location of the emergency?” The voice at the other end of the line was her 16-year-old daughter, Tenia, who said: “Mama, can you please send a police officer right now to McDonald’s?”
… During the call, Tenia told her mother that a woman entered the McDonald’s and forced the roughly half-dozen employees into the restaurant’s walk-in freezer. Clark said she would later learn that the robber initially ordered Tenia and her co-workers to get on the ground. Looking at each other, they initially thought she was pranking them. Then she pulled a gun and said something like, “You think I’m playing?” before herding them to the back. That’s when Tenia dialed 911.
… After Clark dispatched police and hung up, she went to her shift manager. She told her that the caller who’d just reported the robbery was her daughter and that she needed to leave. Clark rushed to the McDonald’s, where police were investigating. Officers recognized Clark, told her that her daughter was okay and let her know that Tenia would come out as soon as detectives were done with interviews. When she came out 30 minutes later, Clark held her daughter, who hasn’t been back to the McDonald’s since the robbery. They tell the story personally in the videos below:
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