‘Ridiculous’ 999 Calls

The people of Sheffield are doing us proud with their concern for animal safety, as MSN news reports:

‘Police have released a recording of a woman who dialled 999 to say her hamster had escaped as they pleaded with the public to use the service only for genuine emergencies.

South Yorkshire Police said eight out of 10 of the emergency calls made to its Sheffield control room do not require urgent attention.
In one call a woman tells the operator: “It’s my hamster. It’s got out of its cage. It’s gone into the bathroom and it’s gone down into the floorboards.”‘

The BBC also cover the story on their website, and I’ve just spent an enjoyable few minutes reading related stroies about daft 999 calls. It seems police pleas about not making ‘ridiculous 999 calls’ are a regular occurence (particularly in Sheffield for some reason).

Calls include such gems as:

A man seeking a refund from a shop for a damaged mirror
A woman reporting a water leak from a faulty toilet
A man complaining that a neighbour had not cut his grass
A woman complaining her daughter had locked herself in the toilet and that she needed to go
A man complaining that he’d been kept waiting too long for a meal in a restaurant
A caller who lost a remote control
A woman who broke a fingernail
A child whose mother told her to ring 999 and ask if Santa was there because the child was annoying her
A woman upset after an argument with a friend
A woman asking for help with the crossword
A woman reporting an injured pidgeon
A man complaining that his wife had gone out and not left any food for him to eat
A woman reporting ‘a grey squirrel with no hazelnut trees’ – listen here

and this story about a Cambridge student who called an ambulance because she wanted some pain killers.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cambridgeshire/3959473.stm

I must say the student union President they quote at the end of the story seems most unsympathetic. I hope he didn’t progress any furthur in representing students.