Male calls 999 & requests Police after he became concerned for a duck that ‘looked cold’

Before we start, we just want to confirm that none of the stories which we cover are ‘fake news’. They are real. The fact that most people think they are fake, only says something about the individuals featured in such stories.

In this story, it turns out that an animal lover called 999 after he became worried about a duck that looked like it was ‘cold’. Just how you can tell that a duck is cold just by looking at it, is a mystery.

The Hertfordshire based animal lover called the Cops at 0328 hours on Friday 2nd March during the height of the storm affectionately named ‘the beast from the east’.

 

Whilst we applaud the work of animal lovers, we find it hard to comprehend how anyone would think that the Police are able to dedicate a resource in order to carry out a welfare check on a duck?

What did the gentleman expect that the Police would do? turn up and give the duck a cuddle? Give it a blanket? Take it to the local Costa in order to buy the duck a warm beverage?

Superintendent Mike Trotman from the Constabulary’s Force Control Room (FCR) said: “This is an example of the emergency 999 number being used for completely the wrong reason”.

Anyone who subscribes to our eMagazine will know, that we have a dedicated section in it entitled: ‘Darwin Awards’ where we like to ‘celebrate’ and acknowledge acts which defy logic and/or common sense.

We did consider adding the duck-ing caller into next weeks issue, but decided against it only because, although deeply misguided, the callers heart was probably still in the right place.

So rather than ‘award’ the caller a Darwin Award, in the next issue of our eMagazine we will share ten of the most ridiculous 999 calls which we know of. CLICK HERE to subscribe!

Superintendent Trotman went on to tell the Hertfordshire Mercury: ““While it is admirable that the man was concerned for the duck, by calling 999 he could have delayed getting help to those truly in need of assistance and facing an emergency situation”.

 

COMMENT

Having proudly served on the #ThinBlueLine myself for a number of years before retiring, I can definitely say that I have experienced my fair share of dodgy calls.

However, in the inner London Borough where I worked as a PC on a response team, thankfully me and my oppos weren’t really exposed to too many ‘concerned for duck’ welfare calls.

That’s probably because there weren’t many ducks left in the public parks on my patch. They all seemed to disappear around the summer BBQ season…not too sure as to why….

 

 

Written by one of the many admins of Emergency Services Humour, who is also a regular contributor to our satirical fortnightly eMagazine affectionately named S__ts & Giggles. 

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