When burglars broke into a family's home, a 7-year-old boy called 911 and saved his family. Operator Monique Patino was amazed when she took the call. INSIDE EDITION has the story.
"Some guy was gonna kill my mom and dad. Can you come? Please!"
It's the call that nearly broke a 911 operator's heart, and made a hero of a 7-year-old boy.
"The first thing that struck me was the fear," said 911 operator Monique Patino.
The nightmare began when home invaders brandishing guns burst into a house in a quiet neighborhood south of Los Angeles. What the gunmen didn't know, was that the quick-thinking, little boy managed to grab a phone and lock himself in the bathroom with his little sister.
Operator: "What's your name?"
Boy: "Carlos. Can you come really fast? Please! Please!"
Operator: "Can you tell me what happened?"
Boy: "They come, they ring the door, and they have guns! They shoot my mom and dad. Can you come really fast? Bring, um ... cops ... um ... "
Operator: "OK."
Boy: "Ambulance ... and all of them."
Operator: "Listen to me, take a deep breath. I already have the police coming."
Boy: "And bring soldiers too!"
Patino, a mother of two, took the call.
"It was just amazing to me that a little 7-year-old in an instant sees two bad guys come into his house with guns, doing who knows what to his parents, and he grabs his little sister and the phone and locks himself in the bathroom and calls me on 911," Patino said.
The next few seconds would make anyone's blood run cold.
Operator: "Tell me exactly what happened, OK? Just stay where you are and don't hang up, whatever you do."
Boy: "OK. They ring ... the guys, they have a ..."
The boy then started screaming.
"I was horrified, I got teary eyed, I started shaking," Patino said.
Operator (to co-worker): "Hey, we need deputies now. We have a home invasion and he's saying that they shot the mom and the dad. They just broke into the bathroom and took the kids. He was talking on the phone and they just grabbed him. Oh my god."
But the gunmen realize the boy has outsmarted them, they could be heard saying, "we gotta get the ---- out of here! He's on the phone to the police!"
"He's quite a young man, in my mind he's a hero because what would happen had he not called?" said a police officer.
Despite what the little boy said, no one was hurt. The intruders have not been caught.
