Complaining about maggots, waiting too long for a car park space and accidentally swallowing pregnancy pills were just some of the time-wasting calls received by Greater Manchester Police this summer.
A 19% rise in ridiculous 999 calls in July have seen police issue a reminder to residents to only dial 999 in an emergency.
An influx of calls during the recent sunny spell has seen GMP deal with around 3571 emergency and non-emergency calls a day during April, May and June.
Time-wasting calls can prevent police officers from getting to someone who is genuinely in distress and police urge those to only contact them if there is a direct and immediate threat to life or property, or if a crime is in progress.
Ludicrous calls to the number include a lady who rung to report maggots in her bin, a man asking for an ambulance after accidentally ingesting ‘pregnancy pills’ and a man who rung to complain that somebody had stolen his car park space at the Trafford Centre.
Diane Grandidge, GMP’s business lead for call-handling, said: “Every false or inappropriate 999 call wastes precious time that could be spent dealing with genuine emergencies.
“Apart from potentially putting somebody’s life at risk, misusing the 999 system is a criminal offence and we have the power to prosecute people for making hoax calls.
“Each day we receive dozens of calls about issues that the police are not responsible for such as noise nuisance, stray dogs and abandoned cars.
“Answering these calls leads to delays in people trying to get through to us for legitimate reasons so please think ahead and decide whether it may be an issue for the council before picking up the phone.”
For any general enquiries, however or to report less urgent crime or disorder, people are advised to call 101 if for example a car has been stolen, property has been damaged or to give police information about crime.
But calls about noisy neighbours, stray dogs, graffiti, abandoned vehicles, fly tipping or faulty traffic lights should be redirected to local councils and not to the police.
101 is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and there is a single flat rate charge of 15p, no matter how long the duration of the call, what time of day it is or whether you are calling from a landline or mobile phone.
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