It may have been routed to call center in that area, who in turn broker the call, etc.
Yep. I was a 911 dispatcher for a while and can confirm this. I worked for Brunswick County (NC) 911, which borders New Hanover County (NC), Columbus County (NC) and Horry County (SC). Cell phone calls were usually sent to the right place, but if you were way out in the boonies on highway 211 near the Brunswick / Columbus line, if was about 50/50 which 911 center would get the call. And we'd occasionally get a call that was dialed in New Hanover County, Horry County, and - rarely - even further away. So on those calls, we had to try and quickly determine exactly where the caller was, so we could relay the information to the other county for dispatch. Sometimes if we weren't exactly sure and the call seemed to be near the line, we'd dispatch units and request the neighboring county to dispatch theirs as well, and then let the responders figure it out when the arrived.
I took a call once that, as far as I could tell, turned out to be several counties over... something like Pender or Duplin County. We didn't even have their contact info logged anywhere, since it was thought (at the time) that there would never be any need for us to contact, say, Duplin County. I had to call New Hanover County, ask them if they had the number for Pender (who they border), then call them, etc. The term "clusterfuck" comes to mind, but luckily that only ever happened once that I can remember.
Note that this was in the mid 90's and I'm not sure if things are better, worse, or the same now.
Yep. I was a 911 dispatcher for a while and can confirm this. I worked for Brunswick County (NC) 911, which borders New Hanover County (NC), Columbus County (NC) and Horry County (SC). Cell phone calls were usually sent to the right place, but if you were way out in the boonies on highway 211 near the Brunswick / Columbus line, if was about 50/50 which 911 center would get the call. And we'd occasionally get a call that was dialed in New Hanover County, Horry County, and - rarely - even further away. So on those calls, we had to try and quickly determine exactly where the caller was, so we could relay the information to the other county for dispatch. Sometimes if we weren't exactly sure and the call seemed to be near the line, we'd dispatch units and request the neighboring county to dispatch theirs as well, and then let the responders figure it out when the arrived.
I took a call once that, as far as I could tell, turned out to be several counties over... something like Pender or Duplin County. We didn't even have their contact info logged anywhere, since it was thought (at the time) that there would never be any need for us to contact, say, Duplin County. I had to call New Hanover County, ask them if they had the number for Pender (who they border), then call them, etc. The term "clusterfuck" comes to mind, but luckily that only ever happened once that I can remember.
Note that this was in the mid 90's and I'm not sure if things are better, worse, or the same now.