Amber Alert radio message told people to call Sept. 1, 2001 instead of 9-1-1

On Sunday night, Canadians were told to call September 1, 2001 instead of 9-1-1 because a baby was missing.

Let’s back up.

A three-month-old baby was inside a vehicle stolen from a Rexdale flea market parking lot. The vehicle was found a short time later with the little boy asleep and unharmed inside. Police were still looking for the car thief.

An automated message interrupted radio and TV on Sunday around 5:25 p.m., warning people of an Amber Alert.

Click the link below or click here to listen to the Amber Alert message that ran on radio.

Here are some things the robotic voice said:

• “Call September 1, 2001” instead of 9-1-1
• The licence plate number was translated into “January 6, 2001” instead of BWRC 161
• The car is from the year “one-thousand-nine-hundred-and-ninety-seven” instead of 1997
• The vehicle is “medium build” because the robot melds words together and the script was the following: Abductor: Male white, 20-25 years old. Short blond hair, 5 foot 11 inches, medium build Vehicle: Tan colored 4 Door 1997 Toyota Camry, Ontario # BWRC 161

The error was not that of the police but of the broadcaster.

Rogers Media released the following statement regarding the incident:

“Emergency Alerts like this are critical for authorities to get their message out and that’s why we installed new equipment recommended by Pelmorex last year. We’ll look into what exactly happened in this case so we can make sure that important messages like this get to the public as quickly and accurately as possible.”

According to Andrew Garas, a media relations manager with Rogers Media, the system was designed to receive an audio file so that radio stations can quickly get the information to air.

However, this hasn’t been the case and stations have been “forced to use a text-to-speech conversion software” that can sometimes relay inaccurate information, said Garas.

“It’s critical that the correct information is broadcast and we will continue working with the Pelmorex Governance Council to ensure this serious issue gets resolved quickly and the way our stations pass through the alerts changes,” said Garas.

This is not the first instance of trouble with the alert system.

Earlier this month, a message accompanied by a blaring signal interrupted TV programs to advise people of an Amber Alert for a missing Orillia boy.

The message at the time started as a red scroll on top of TV screens, with only partial sentences being displayed at any given time, making it difficult to read, with some instances of the message even missing the words “Amber Alert.”

Note: Rogers is the parent company of this station