Upon reading the heading then you might be forgiven for thinking that this news story is not a real one. But, unfortunately, it is.
A lady actually took it upon herself to phone the police and demand emergency help, because the chippy that she was in at the time of making the 999 call would only give her a sausage.
In a tweet shared on the North Yorkshire Police twitter page, a spokesperson said:
“We’ve received a 999 call from a woman to report that she has ordered two portions of fish and chips but that the chip shop will only give her a sausage.
“This is not a 999 call.
“Please only use 999 in an emergency.”
As if the emergency services didn’t have enough to worry about already, what with it being one of the busiest times of the year in the run up to Christmas, they have people calling them via 999 because of reasons such as this one.
How can it be so hard to absorb the fact that the 999 system is for emergencies? And how hard can it be to understand that this situation is not an emergency?
Even most toddlers can understand that, even when they take over their parents phone, then they must not dial 999.
And yet we have grown adults who genuinely believe that a police car should come racing to their location, because they have been served a sausage rather than fish and chips.
The general public often wonder why, when they have a genuine emergency, then sometimes they cannot get through to the emergency services straight away.
It’s because of people like this lady clogging up the 999 systems with absolute BS.
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