Taipei City Police Department

    Amateur mountain-climbing hobbyist Chris, a Russian exchange student in Taiwan, was trekking the forest trails of Junjian Yan, Beitou District in the afternoon of Nov. 14, when instead of beholding the magnificent Taipei City skyline vista, she lost her way in the perilous mountain passes. Stumbling amidst the foliage-strewn paths and with the skies above dimming in the twilight, she stumbled on an unknown graveyard in the bosom of the hills. Frightened beyond measure, Chris dialed the 110-emergency hotline to ask for help. The TCPD answered, and in order to aid Chris, who barely spoke Chinese, a “Three-Way Conference Call” was facilitated between both parties and the Foreign Affairs Police Station (FAPS), who acted as an interpreter.

    After listening to Chris’s plight, Lieutenant Chu, Mu-Kun of the FAPS utilized LINE app’s position-sharing function, and successfully acquired the distressed damsel’s coordinates, which he forwarded immediately to the Taipei City Fire Department. A 10-men search party helmed by captain Guo-Chun Hao of the TCFD Guangming brigade rushed at once to Chris’s rescue, and whilst they scoured the hills, Lietenant Chu kept Chris company throughout the whole ordeal, calming her nerves and forwarding pictures of her location to the firemen. In under an hour of rigorous combing, they successfully found Chris and brought her down the mountain; the expat was scared but thankfully otherwise unhurt.

    The TCPD would like to advise the public in light of this incident, that owing to impaired line of sight in the night, it is recommended to carry out mountaineering activities in the daytime. Routes of both ascent and descent should be carefully planned out, and climbing companions should ideally be present. The police would also like to advocate the existence of the “NPA Video Call App”, which upon case reporting will automatically record the call and link the caller’s smartphone with GPS positioning systems, thus efficiently providing the authorities with the caller’s location along with images of the surroundings. The App goes a long way in aiding responding officers to discern the complete circumstances of the scene, and it is highly recommended that citizens download it to further ensure their personal safety and well-being.