“Help…Please…Get me out of here.”
That’s the lettering on a yellow sheet of paper a maintenance worker saw in an apartment window in Naples, Florida.
Was someone being held hostage? he wondered.
Only one thing to do: Call 911!
When Collier County Sheriff’s deputies arrived, they, too, were alarmed as they cautiously headed to the apartment door.
One of the most dangerous things police do is approach residences where trouble is suspected. All too often domestic violence calls end badly. Would this be one of those times?
Fortunately, not.
Turns out, the plea for help was written by a 10-year-old girl upset that her mother sent her to her room to finish her math homework.
“The girl decided to take an unorthodox approach,” the Sheriff’s Office said in a statement released to the press. “She wrote her impassioned plea on a piece of paper then stuck it against the window in her room.”
So, no gunplay. A peaceful ending.
“We were happy to know that no one was in danger,” the Sheriff’s Office said, adding that police “totally relate to the frustration that comes with math homework.”
One of the responding deputies gave the girl his cell phone number and told her “she could call anytime with questions to avoid another 911 situation.”
STRANGE FACT: According to a study by Stanford University, 56 percent of students consider homework to be a primary cause of stress in their lives.
