Accidental cell call causes SWAT team ruckus at middle school

Here's a reminder that drivers shouldn't keep their phones bouncing around in their pants pocket: One suburban Chicago school employee inadvertently triggered the emergency deployment of a 30-member SWAT team after he accidentally pocket-dialed his wife. "Gangster-like" music was playing in the background, leading his wife to believe that the call indicated he was being held hostage, as a district superintendent later explained. So the emergency-response squad turned out in full force at the Winnetka middle school campus that houses the district offices where he works.

"You know how when you sit on your phone when it's in your back pocket and it calls the last number that was dialed? His wife was the last number he'd dialed," Winnetka Police Chief Joseph De Lopez told the Chicago Tribune.

Three news helicopters joined the scrum, until police eventually announced there had been a misunderstanding.

Neither the paper nor the police named the employee at the center of the ruckus, who is reportedly pretty embarrassed. If he pocket-dials his wife from behind the wheel again, though, he'd be well advised to tune into an easy-listening station.

(Photo of cell phones: AP)