{"id":245819,"date":"2026-05-14T09:25:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T13:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/14\/iphone-alert-of-possible-crash-in-baker-county-was-false-alarm\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T09:45:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T13:45:09","slug":"iphone-alert-of-possible-crash-in-baker-county-was-false-alarm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/14\/iphone-alert-of-possible-crash-in-baker-county-was-false-alarm\/","title":{"rendered":"iPhone alert of possible crash in Baker County was false alarm"},"content":{"rendered":"

iPhone alert of possible crash in Baker County was false alarm<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/bakercityherald.com\/2026\/05\/14\/iphone-alert-of-possible-crash-in-baker-county-was-false-alarm\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-05-14 09:25:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: bakercityherald.com<\/a><\/p>\n

iPhone alert of possible crash in Baker County was false alarm<\/h2>\n

Published 6:25 am Thursday, May 14, 2026<\/p>\n

BAKER CITY \u2014 An iPhone alert about a possible car crash, with a passenger trapped inside, prompted a rescue effort in Baker County on Tuesday afternoon, May 12, but the episode turned out to be a false alarm.<\/p>\n

The phone that sent the automated message was in the pocket of a person operating a skid steer while helping to build a fence in southern Baker County near the Malheur County line, said Ashley McClay, public information officer for the Baker County Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

As the machine bounced around, jostling triggered the iPhone\u2019s sensor that detects the types of rapid movement that can happen during a crash and can send an alert to a relay center that forwards the message to the nearest emergency dispatch office.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese iPhone activations are not uncommon, but the wording in this particular message appeared more like a user attempting to send an intentional message,\u201d McClay wrote in an email to the Baker City Herald.<\/p>\n

Dispatchers called the cellphone several times after the alert, which came in around 12:53 p.m., but all calls went to voicemail, McClay wrote.<\/p>\n

Sheriff Travis Ash called in six members of the sheriff\u2019s office\u2019s search and rescue team, along with Undersheriff Tim Durheim and Deputy Danny Downing. A LifeFlight helicopter also responded, as did the Burnt River Fire Department.<\/p>\n

The location is in the Wendt Butte area, about 4 miles southwest of Bridgeport.<\/p>\n

When Downing arrived in the area he found a man and explained the situation, McClay said.<\/p>\n

The man told Downing a group of fence builders was working nearby, and he drove Downing to the work site in his side-by-side.<\/p>\n

Downing talked to the group, including the skid steer operator, and it became clear that the driver didn\u2019t realize his iPhone had sent…<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

iPhone alert of possible crash in Baker County was false alarm https:\/\/bakercityherald.com\/2026\/05\/14\/iphone-alert-of-possible-crash-in-baker-county-was-false-alarm\/ Publish Date: 2026-05-14…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":245822,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/bakercityherald.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/05\/Sheriff-Badge5_finished.png_7ccd0e.jpg?w=175","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[120],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-245819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-iphone"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245819"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245819"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245819\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":245824,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245819\/revisions\/245824"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}