Thaindian News

London, Dec 25 (ANI): It’s a time for peace and being merry but apparently not for everyone, especially 999 operators.

Chief Superintendent BJ Harrington, who runs the Met’s central communications command, said that Christmas seems to be about wasting police time with bizarre emergency calls about everything from the Pope to chatting up the 999 operators, reports the Daily Mail.

Here are some examples of the weird calls people make on Christmas:

At 3am on Christmas morning a woman called to ask if ‘our gracious Queen’ and ‘the Pope’ were all right.

Shortly after 5pm a woman accused the police of kidnapping her, but after a short discussion invited the operator over to her house for a cup of tea.

A man called to say that he had been a ‘naughty boy’ and that he should be punished for it, and later asked if the operator could ‘blow him a kiss’.

In South Yorkshire, a man dialled 999 to check how Santa was getting on with his deliveries.

“If it is not an emergency call 0300 123 1212, that allows us to help those who genuinely need help. The problem comes when that person holds up a 999 line. If there is a road traffic accident, particularly on the M25, we get lots of calls about the same incident,” said Harrington.

“If as a result someone else has to wait 15, 20, 30 seconds then that could be the difference between life and death.”

Harrington said, “Like every other day we get the dubious and unsuitable calls. People who want to say happy Christmas to the Queen and the Pope.They are quite amusing sometimes but we still have a large number of calls from people requiring our help.”

“Everyone is enjoying their turkey and watching TV and the Queen’s speech, but the Metropolitan Police is still here.” (ANI)