Oh, how embarrassing.

[can I just say that I had to smile while reading this - my mother has called the police when she couldn't contact us, and she wasn't wasted. I remember one time my sisters and I, all teenagers at the time, were home while she was at work. She tried to call and, for a reason I can't recall, she couldn't get through on the phone. Next thing we knew there was a gigantic policeman knocking on the front door, asking us if everything was alright. Sure, everything's fine, officer, except now I'm completely mortified! Well, at least she didn't call out the helicopters and dogs ;)]

K I S S I M M E E, Fla. Next time Donna Gillum isn't sure where her daughter is, she might want to call the baby sitter instead of 911.

Gillum frantically phoned the emergency line one evening earlier this month, saying she hadn't seen her daughter in an hour and was worried she'd been kidnapped, police say.

As police sent a squad car to investigate, Gillum called 911 three more times to ask for help finding the girl. Within an hour, over a dozen officers, a helicopter and police dogs were searching for the girl, said Kissimmee police investigator James Napier.

They did a door-to-door search of the building and checked with the girl's regular baby sitter, but had no luck.

"In our minds it started to look pretty bleak," Napier said.

A couple hours after the search started, however, Gillum suggested police check with another baby sitter, Napier said.

"We go over there, and the child was there," he said. "The kid said mom took her over there around 6:30 [in the evening]."

Napier said Gillum had appeared intoxicated when officers had arrived and admitted drinking nine beers in three hours before she phoned police. Gillum said she couldn't remember dropping her daughter off at the baby sitter.

She faces 3rd degree child neglect charges and police are seeking to make her pay $2,000 for the cost of the search. [abcnews]