Police Scotland reveal bizarre 999 calls

POLICE Scotland have published a list of bizarre 999 calls made by members of the public to raise awareness of the force’s non-emergency 101 number.
Police Scotland have unveiled a series of bizarre 999 calls made by a 'small proportion' of the public. Picture: TSPLPolice Scotland have unveiled a series of bizarre 999 calls made by a 'small proportion' of the public. Picture: TSPL
Police Scotland have unveiled a series of bizarre 999 calls made by a 'small proportion' of the public. Picture: TSPL

Scotland’s police force unveiled a series of trivial queries, including for hamburgers and milk, in order to clamp down on time-wasting calls.

Police Scotland’s Twitter followers, numbering over 20,500, were treated to some of the stranger calls made to the emergency service.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

They wrote: “These are all genuine calls. Let’s start gently. A thirsty caller on 999 recently asked us where they could buy milk.

“999 caller complained about a fast food chain. They were given a hamburger instead of a cheeseburger. Waste of our time.”

Other calls published included one where someone had dialled 999 to enquire about the non-emergency number, and a woman who reported her mother for the use of drugs that she was providing her with.

They wrote: “Someone dialled us on 999 & asked: “What’s your non-emergency number? *Collective police sigh*

“Drunk person called 999 to report woman for drug use. We asked how he knew this. He said: ‘Because I collect them for her.’”

Another tweet listing a bizarre call read: “999 caller said to us: ‘Can you go to a house in Tottenham, London & see if my friend is having an affair?’ #GeographyLesson”

The list of calls was also published on the force’s Facebook page.

A Police Scotland spokeswoman said: “Police Scotland has emergency service centres across the country answering hundreds of calls every day.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“Unfortunately we receive a proportion of time-wasting 999 calls on a daily basis, a very serious issue.

“Although a number of our examples will seem pretty amusing, there is a very serious message to remember too.

“Our staff treat every incoming 999 call with the same level of seriousness so when we receive inappropriate ones we risk being unable to answer a genuine emergency call as quickly as we’d like to.”