A UK police force has issued a real-life audio recording of a woman who dialed 999 to say she had lost her laptop password.
Two things concern me about this particular call:
- firstly, who in their right mind thinks that recovering a lost computer password is a genuine emergency?
- secondly, who in their right mind thinks that a police emergency control room operator would just happen to have your laptop password on file?
The call emerged after West Midlands Police decided to use Twitter highlight some of the most bizarre non-emergency emergency calls it received.
It used its official Twitter site to highlight a selection of calls over a 24 hour period in a bid to help educate the public not to use the emergency number for trivial calls.
In the UK 999 is the emergency number and 101 is the number for non-emergency calls.
This is part of the conversation about the lost laptop password:
Police: “Police emergency.”
Caller: “I’m calling because my laptop is closed and I need…the password.”
Police: “You have called up the police to get a password for your laptop?”
Caller: “Yes please”
Police: “…we don’t deal with laptops and passwords.”
Caller: “…I was using Facebook.”
Police: “We are the emergency services. We deal with life or death incidents. We don’t deal with passwords on laptops. It is nothing to do with the police”
Caller: “Alright then thank you.”
Listen to the full conversation below:
West Midlands Police – 999 Call Handlers (Picture © West Midlands Police/Flickr)
Some of the other bizarre “emergency” calls included:
- a report of a broken window
- a caller dialled 999 to ask police to come out to ‘frighten his sister’
- a man who wanted a refund for an expensive car wash and
- a woman who rings to be asked to be put through to her local takeaway.
And talking about food…now listen to a caller who called 999 to complain that he could not get served in McDonalds:
I will leave the last word to West Midlands Police from their Twitter feed:
“Call 999 when a crime is in progress, a crime is nearby, there is danger to life or when violence is being used or threatened.”
Precisely!