‘L.A. in a Minute’ was on hold for 2 minutes with 911, not an hour. ‘I want to make that clear, they answered’

A few minutes can make a difference in a story. “L.A. in a Minute” podcast host Evan Lovett clarified a scary situation that happened at his home that resulted in a long wait time for a police response, but the story did not unfold the way he described it in an Instagram post that received nearly 50,000 likes.

Lovett reported somebody broke into his Studio City home on Friday and when he called 911 he waited on the phone for nearly an hour. But on Monday, he updated his viewers to say that 911 dispatchers actually answered his call within 2 minutes.

“I want to make that clear, they answered,” Lovett said in the follow-up video.

Lovett said he explained there was a break-in at his home and somebody shattered a window. The dispatcher asked if anybody was in immediate danger and when he said everyone in his home was safe his call was transferred to the Los Angeles Police Department.

That’s when he was placed on a long hold, he said.

“It was 58 minutes at that point from the time that they picked up, which, in retrospect, with that chaos, with that stress, is a reasonable time for a not imminently dangerous situation,” Lovett said.

Lovett apologized for his initial video.

“It was a mistake on my part and I think anybody who’s aware of my work, my track record, my dedication to the city, knows that I would not do anything to disparage the city,” he told the Los Angeles Daily News. “That’s precisely why as soon as I realize the mistake, I put out a corrective video with the exact timeline of narrative.”

The break-in happened just after 9 p.m. Friday after his 11-year-old son’s baseball game. A glass door in the back of the house was smashed in and valuables, including jewelry and a safe with items left to him by his deceased father, were gone.

After searching the home for intruders, Lovett said he called 911. “This s— is unnerving,” he said in a video posted to social media.

“What if my son was choking? What if my wife slipped and fell in the shower and cracked her head open?” he said in an interview with The Times on Sunday.

Police publicly disputed his estimate for how long it took to respond to his call, with L.A. Police Capt. Ray Valois telling NBC4 the call was picked up in 74 seconds and then was de-prioritized as a non-emergency call.

Lovett rebutted Valois’ claims and said he had witnesses to prove it. Several of his neighbors had come to his home to help and were listening while he called 911 on speaker, Lovett said. When he called, he said, a two-part recording told him he was placed on hold, then said there was a heavy call volume and not to hang up.

“There was absolutely no human being that we heard from, until 58 minutes.”

But in his follow-up video, Lovett clarified that somebody did pick up.

“I want to say thank you to the 911 dispatchers. I do appreciate them doing a good job,” Lovett said. “I’m an advocate for this city. We love this place, and I want to uplift the city. So they are doing a fantastic job, as is the LAPD who came within six minutes. And I’m thankful.”

By then, it was about 10:12 p.m.

His Wi-Fi-enabled Ring cameras had detected no movement between 6:30 and 7:30 p.m., he said, leading officers to believe a group of thieves used a Wi-Fi jammer to disrupt the cameras and enter unseen.

Lovett, who worked as a sports staff writer for The Times from 1998 to 1999, said he’d like to use his platform to start a dialogue on how to correct what he sees as a negative trajectory for Los Angeles.

Lovett’s podcast regularly focuses on history, news and current events shaping Los Angeles. But earlier on the day of the break-in, he’d posted an episode in which he described feeling despondent about the condition of the city. “From the fires to ICE raids to the political blame game to Hollywood’s continued struggle, the atmosphere of gloom is pervading Los Angeles,” the description reads. Then the break-in happened.

Now he feels he should speak out, given his own experience, as well as the staff shortages that exist in the L.A. Police Department and 911 call centers.

“When it shows up at your front door, and I have a platform that reaches important people and decision-making people, I’m like, I gotta say something,” Lovett said. “Let’s be constructive and let’s all work for the betterment of the city without getting mad at each other, without pointing the finger at each other, because the air is heavy enough in Los Angeles as it is right now. Let’s work on doing it in a positive, uplifting way.”

Since the burglary, he said, several local officials including his City Council representative, Nithya Raman, had reached out to him.

“This was a big damn mistake,” Lovett told The Times nearly a week after his first video was posted. “I feel like a real jerk for all of this and I’m so embarrassed it unfolded the way it did.”

He plans to upgrade his home security system and hopes the situation brings attention to residential burglaries around the city.

Since his first video, Lovett has been in communication with police about his case, and his son noticed an increase in police patrols around the neighborhood, which makes his family feel safer.