Emergency phone

– I’ve been robbed.

The person on the other end of the emergency line never knows what awaits them when they answer the caller: Is there a fire, does someone need immediate help or perhaps they have been robbed?

However, police in Essex in the UK were unprepared for the call they received earlier this summer.

A very upset woman called 999 (the UK emergency number) to complain about receiving the wrong type of pizza she had ordered. The woman ordered number 18 with meat, but received number eight with mushrooms.

In footage released by Essex Police, emergency operators can be heard asking the woman if she is OK.

– No, actually not. Believe it or not, I was ripped off by a fast food restaurant. I called them and ordered number 18, “meat feast”, but they insisted I order number eight with mushrooms. Now I happen to be allergic to mold, so there’s actually no way I could order a pizza that has mold in it, said the very annoyed woman in the conversation.

– So now I’m sitting here with a pizza with mushrooms on it that I can’t eat. 11.99 pounds (about NOK 129) later and the lady (the guy at the pizzeria, editor’s note) wouldn’t help me or anything. Absolutely ridiculous, the caller complained.

When the emergency operator asked the angry woman what she thought police should do about the case, she replied: “I don’t know.” I just want my money back”

The emergency operator suggested that the woman call the pizzeria directly to complain, the caller explained that she had already done so – but to no avail.

– I thought the woman I was talking to was a boss or something, he said in frustration.

In conclusion, the emergency operator explained that the police could not do much about this case.

Lots of unnecessary phone calls

The audio clip received a lot of attention in the British media and has been featured on the BBC, Independent and The Telegraph.

Police in Essex explained that they hope the audio clip will raise awareness of the number of unnecessary calls the emergency center receives every month. All audio clips are part of the “More time to fight crime” attitude campaign, wrote Subway.

In a statement, the head of Essex’s emergency services, Kevin Baldwin, explained that their switchboard alone receives more than 400 calls every month that do not qualify as “emergency calls”. Starting from wrongly parked cars, high electricity bills to suspicious sleeping mats found on the side of the road.

– Nothing frustrates us more than answering a call that is clearly not an emergency or just a prank call, explains Baldwin to Telegraph.

– This time of year (summer, editor’s note) is a very busy time for us, so wasting time on unnecessary calls is not only frustrating, but also potentially life-threatening for people who can’t get through to an emergency center .

Problems in Norway and

In Norway too, the police had previously reported to the media and explained that they received many fake calls to emergency centers. According to an article from NRK published in 2015, approximately 90 percent of all calls received by the operations center in the Telemark police district were not emergency calls.

This case was first published on 02/08 2018, and last updated on 02/08 2018.