MORGANTON, N.C. – Five-year-old Skylah Fitzgerald and her seven-year-old brother, Nolan James, live in Morganton with grandparents Kim and David Baldwin.

What You Need To Know

  • Five-year-old Skylah called 911 from her tutor's iPad without her grandparent's knowledge

  • Dispatch realized it was a child calling and not a true emergency

  • K9 team, SJ Huffman with Morganton Department of Public Safety and K9 Jaros, responded anyway because of the nature of the call

This past fall, Kim and David fell sick with coronavirus. To help Nolan with his studies, one of his teachers came over to tutor him. Skylah was playing with the teacher's phone when, without anyone's knowledge, she dialed 911. Skylah told dispatch there was a purple monster with big claws in her brother's closet and it was an emergency.

Dispatch called Officer SJ Huffman and K9 Jaros, but when Huffman heard the description of the call, she responded to Skylah's house.

"Yes, she told us it was in the room and we told her Jaros takes care of all of them and she doesn’t have to worry about them no more. Obviously, she absolutely loves dogs but it helps us to get to a kids level. A lot of times we show up in this uniform and it's intimidating, but they find out I have a dog in the car and they love that I get to take my dog to work," says Huffman.

Skylah's grandparents and the officer also explained to Skylah what a real emergency is and when it's necessary to call.