There are many reasons why people call ‘999’ – houses being broken into, someone falling ill, a house catching fire, a cat getting stuck up a tree – but for some people, the emergency services are also a complaints hotline.
From a Chinese takeaway restaurant not answering their phone to running out of toilet paper, police services in the UK have revealed some of the worst 999 calls they received in 2012.
Devon and Cornwall police said unnecessary calls also included someone reporting a leak in their bathroom and someone wanting a life home on Christmas day and their operators have released a flavour of some of the inquires they had to bat away to allow genuine calls to come through.
One entry on the police log read: ”Just received a 999 call from a male saying ‘I have run out of toilet roll”’.
Help! We’ve run out of loo roll…
And just after 7am on Christmas Day, police received a call from a sober sounding man outside Exeter police station asking for a lift home after a night out. It seems he had spent all his taxi money on pints and instead of trying to hitch a lift home with a friend, thought the police would oblige.
Another call came from a woman who phoned to say her electricity had gone out and another time waster phoned to ask for the number of a good plumber after he came home to find a leak in the bathroom!
But perhaps the biggest no-no of them all came from another caller who phoned the paramedics because his dog had a temperature.
We’re all for animal welfare but that’s just taking it too far!
