'Running out of toilet roll' prompts 999 call
Running out of toilet roll and difficulty ringing a Chinese takeaway have been revealed as some of the frivolous 999 calls made to Devon and Cornwall Police.
The force said other unnecessary calls made last year included reporting a leak in a bathroom and someone wanting a lift home on Christmas Day.
A spokesman for the Devon and Cornwall force said its operators had released a flavour of some of the inquiries they have had to bat away to allow genuinely urgent calls to get through.
One entry on the police log read: "Just received a 999 call from a male saying: 'I have run out of toilet roll'."
And just after 7am on Christmas Day, police received a call from a sober sounding man outside Exeter police station asking for a lift back to Crediton.
He told the operator he had spent all his money and, due to it being Christmas, said he was struggling to get home.
In another example of inappropriately using the 999 number, a woman who had been trying to contact her local Chinese takeaway, called police after finding that they were not answering.
She called the emergency number to ask if they knew if the takeaway had closed down or moved. She told the operator she had no concerns for them, and that she just wanted some food.
Another member of the public called 999 to say that her electricity had gone out and they needed to sort it.
The operator tried to give the woman the emergency number for the electric company but she would not believe that the police did not deal with electricity.
