Guys in listening posts would tape the leads to their fingers so when they got a call, it would not ring the phone and give away their position...or to wake their sleeping asses up!
LOLOL In my 911 install days I've been hit a couple of times with ringer voltage. "Here and there" a ring generator is installed (as I'm sure you know) for stuff like local in house switches or intercoms and such
Around these rural parts the interface to the demark is somewhat sketchy and is NEVER well marked. There are always special lines, dry pairs, used for remote radio base stations, remote control circuits, and alarm monitors. "I think" it was down in Ritzville WA I was trying to figure that mess out, and triggered a remote fire siren "somewhere out there." Pretty soon dispatch started getting calls. Guys (volunteer/ off duty fire guys) in hearing range of the siren had heard it, but their monitor radios/ pagers had not alarmed