Jovanny Frias had never met Rachel Henry before Friday, but when the shy 9-year-old needed help in a hurry last year, she was there to answer his call.
Henry, a Fort Worth 911 call taker, was working November 24 when the fourth-grader was home alone and two men broke into his house.
Click here to listen to the 911 call.
“I was laying down, just watching TV,” Frias said.
His mother had gone to the store when he heard the glass window on the back door shattering.
He called 911.
“Someone is at my house,” he whispered.
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“Who’s at your house?” Henry asked.
“I don’t know,” he answered. “Seems like a robber… I’m scared.”
Henry kept the boy on the phone while she summoned officers.
"I wanted to get someone out there as quick as we could,” she said.
“I’m a kid. I’m a little kid,” Frias said in the 911 call, the tension in his voice rising.
Henry set him at ease.
“I know you're a kid,” Henry assured him. “I'm going to stay on the phone until someone gets there, okay?"
Frias heard more noises from the intruders and locked himself in his parents’ bedroom.
He hid behind a bed, but stayed on the phone.
“Do you hear them coming closer?” Henry asked him.
“Yes.”
“Okay, try to stay quiet.”
The first officers arrived within 5 minutes.
“I calmed down when I saw the police,” Frias said.
They arrested one burglar running out the back door, and another one hiding in a closet.
On Friday, in honor of 911 Appreciation Week, Frias went to the Fort Worth 911 communications center to meet Henry for the first time.
She gave him several gifts, including a 911 hat and a portable radio.
“You did a great job calling 911 that day,” Henry told him.
Rattled by all the attention, Frias didn’t say much, but he did manage to muster the two words that counted most.
“Thank you,” he said.
