Scotland Yard reveals time-wasting 999 calls - including a woman who complained her kebab was cold

Met reveals time wasters' calls in warning over proper use of emergency line over Christmas
Officers in a Scotland Yard control room
Glenn Copus
Jamie Bullen23 December 2015

An unhappy kebab customer, holidaymakers running late for their flights and a confused woman under arrest were among some of the inappropriate calls made to police this year, Scotland Yard has revealed.

A clown charging balloons in London for £5, a man who wanted his 50p back after it became stuck in a washing machine and a sleep-deprived woman complaining about noisy foxes outside her home were also included in the most extreme examples.

The list was revealed by Scotland Yard in an attempt to ensure callers use the 999 line for legitimate purposes over Christmas and New Year when traditionally the emergency line is at its busiest.

The Met said on they receive an average of more than four and a half million calls a year to the 999 and 101 numbers.

However, many of these did not require a police response with 10 examples of the most bizarre calls made over the last year revealed to illustrate how police time can be wasted.

They included a female kebab customer unhappy her food was served cold and that the takeaway would not replace it, drivers in distress because they were about to run out of fuel, a man who claimed he was kidnapped by car park staff when he didn’t have change for the machine.

The Met also received calls from people who wanted officers to drive them to the airport to catch flights after missing their alarms and someone who phoned at 4am on a Saturday to ask where the best place was to get a bacon sandwich.

In one particular bizarre case, a woman phoned 999 to say men were in her home trying to take her away only to be told police had attended her address to arrest her.

Chief Superintendent Pippa Mills, head of the Met's Command and Control, said: "This is just a sample of inappropriate calls received by our operators this year. Callers, who do not have an emergency, may prevent others who require our immediate assistance from getting through to us. This presents a real risk to our ability to respond to genuine emergency calls."

She added: "We want Londoners to have a safe and enjoyable festive season. In the event that officers are required, we need calls to reach us swiftly. I would like to take this opportunity to remind the public that, if it is not an emergency, then please dial 101, our non emergency number."

Scotland Yard said while the incidents were not classified as nuisance calls they did take up valuable police time as most of them have to be called back to check emergency services are not needed.

To advise callers they have told people to phone 999 if a life is at risk or being threatened, a crime is in progress or offenders nearby or a road traffic collision causing injury and danger.

Any non-emergencies that require a police response such as stolen cars, damaged property or suspected drug dealing should be made via 101.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in