Trivial 999 emergency calls: A true or false quiz!

I've featured trivial 999* emergency calls before on the Charles Fudgemuffin blog, and I've also featured true or false quizzes on the blog. However, this week is the first time that I've combined the two in a 'trivial 999 emergency calls' true or false quiz!

* Or 911 emergency calls for the benefit of our American readers.

Another batch of 'emergency' calls.

Take a read of the following trivial emergency calls and see if you can guess whether they're actual real calls made by foolish people, or whether I've just made them up. You can find the answers at the bottom of the quiz...

1) When I was a lad...

"What time are children allowed out until? Is there a specific time for them to come in?"

For the benefit of whoever made this 'emergency' call, please be aware that the emergency call line is not a substitute for Google! Or common sense, for that matter.

But was this an actual real call, or have I just made it up?

True or false?

Trivial emergency 999 calls (part 4)

I've highlighted before on the Charles Fudgemuffin blog that some people seem to regard the 999 emergency number as a general enquiries number, and in some cases people are calling up for the most trivial of reasons.

"That's another dog for the naughty list..."

So once again it's time for another round-up of trivial emergency 999 calls* made by people who seem to have a strange idea of what constitutes an emergency...

* Or trivial 911 calls for the benefit of American readers.

1) Guilty dog (part 1)

"My dog has just destroyed my favourite stuffed toy."

What exactly did they want the police to do about it? Arrest the dog?

Trivial 999 emergency calls (part 3)

An injured banana in need of medical attention.

I've mentioned before on the Charles Fudgemuffin blog that some people seem to treat the 999* emergency telephone number as a 'General Enquiries' helpdesk for the most trivial of issues.  Here are some more ridiculously trivial phone calls which the callers deemed worthy of treating as an 'emergency'.

* Or 911 for the benefit of any US readers.

1) "Is your emergency fire, ambulance, or fruit related?"

One bizarre person from Nottinghamshire rang 999 to report that they had overcooked a banana!

Trivial 999 emergency calls (part 2)

...or trivial 911 calls, as they're known in the US.

"Yes, I have a bacon related emergency..."

As I've mentioned before on the Charles Fudgemuffin blog, some misguided people seem to regard the 999 emergency helpline as a general helpdesk for any random trivial query.

To highlight this problem, the Metropolitan Police recently published a list of some of the stupidest most time-wasting 999 calls they received during 2015. All of the following were genuine 'emergency' calls as reported by the Metropolitan police...

1) Emergency bacon

A hungry dude rang 999 at 4am on a Saturday morning to ask, "Where's the best place to get a bacon sandwich?"

2) "Help, I'm being arrested!"

One woman rang 999 to report that there were men in her house trying to kidnap her. The men were actually police officers who were there to arrest her.

Trivial 999 emergency calls

Or for the benefit of US readers, trivial 911 emergency calls.

The 999 emergency phone number saves many lives every year, but unfortunately not everyone uses the service responsibly. For example, the Welsh Ambulance Service recently reported that they received 31,219 non-urgent calls in the last twelve months.

"What is the nature of your emergency..."

To highlight how irresponsible some people are, I've featured below a few examples of some of these non-urgent calls* which illustrate that in some cases people have phoned 999 for the most ridiculous reasons.

* These are taken from genuine calls received by various emergency services around the UK and the rest of world.

To turn things into a bit of a quiz though, I've also included one fake emergency call which I just made up, so have a read of the following trivial emergency calls and then scroll down the page to see if you can guess which one was the red herring...