Charges filed in 911 cat call

A northwest Houston woman who told 911 operators her 2-year-old baby was trapped in a storm sewer has been charged with making a false report — see, after the HFD sent 35 firefighters to the woman's house, they found out Baby was the name of the woman's cat. And the cat was trapped in the sewer. There was no kid. See?

Angelikue M. Richardson called for the Fire Department's help "several times" Wednesday night, District Chief Jack Williams said Thursday.

She finally told a 911 dispatcher that her "baby boy" was trapped in the sewer near her home in the 5900 block of Bolivia, he said.

Williams said the Fire Department does not have the manpower to rescue trapped animals.

"I am not going to put my guys in harm's way — or away from the citizens who really need our help — to do that," Williams said.

Richardson told reporters it wasn't her, but rather her 12-year-old daughter (who is human), who placed the call to 911 — and yet Richardson's being charged with a Class B misdemeanor. First they complain about rescuing her cat, then they slap her with a charge. Life is, like, so unfair.

Despite the Richardson case, the Houston Chronicle reported the HFD does, at times, rescue stranded cats. For example, firefighters in Midtown spent about two hours Monday getting an 11-year-old cat down from a tree near the Post Midtown Square apartments after the cat's owner drove to the fire station and reported the crisis in person.

Williams said, "There's a big, big difference" in the two kitty cases.

"First of all, when they got the cat out of that tree, the person probably did not call 911 and say, 'My child is trapped in a tree,' " Williams said. "The Fire Department's apparatus did not go out of service. They were ready to respond the whole time they were there. If there had been an emergency, they could have responded to it."

Richardson was not taken into police custody, but was ordered to appear in county criminal court. And for the record, the fire department did rescue Baby. (The photo, by the way, isn't of Baby — it's just a stunt double.)