Posted on 12/03/2010 3:26:13 PM PST by smokingfrog
A woman dialled 999 to report a theft – of a snowman outside her house.
Police said she thought it demanded their involvement because she had used pound coins for the eyes and teaspoons for the arms.
The woman, from Chatham, Kent, has been “spoken to” by officers to advise her about what constitutes a real emergency.
Chief Inspector Simon Black, from Kent Police’s force contact and control centre, said: “This call could have cost someone’s life if there was a genuine emergency and they couldn’t get through.
“It was completely irresponsible.
Kent Police issued a transcript of the “completely irresponsible” call which they received overnight as they fielded thousands of calls from people because of the sub-zero conditions.
In the call, the woman tells the operator: “There’s been a theft from outside my house.
“I haven’t been out to check on him for five hours but I went outside for a fag and he’s gone.”
The operator asks “Who’s gone?” and the woman replies: “My snowman.
“I thought that with it being icy and there not being anybody about, he’d be safe.”
The incredulous operator asks her: “Do you mean an ornament?” The woman replies: “No, a snowman made of snow, I made him myself.
“It ain’t a nice road but you don’t expect anybody to nick your snowman.”
The operator then tells her that it is an emergency line and she should not be ringing it to report the theft of a snowman.
Chief Inspector Simon Black, from Kent Police’s force contact and control centre, said: “This call could have cost someone’s life if there was a genuine emergency and they couldn’t get through.
“It was completely irresponsible.
(Excerpt) Read more at walesonline.co.uk ...
.....and they probably really had nothing else to do and they wouldn’t look for the old ladies snowman.
I blame global warmning.
Can Al Gore account for his whereabouts?
In other news temperatures in the area have been higher than normal.
Is 9-9-9 the Welsh version of 9-1-1?
Wow, that's so much more harsh than a congressional censure!
I believe it is the emergency number throughout the UK. While the source of the article is Wales Online, this happened in Kent, which is in southeast England.
Evidently. And so much easier to remember!
This is why you don’t put a magic hat on your snowman three weeks before Christmas.
I be they were so mean, on such a nice and sunny day, the thieves even left a puddle of water where the snowman was.
Snowmen are gay?
Police are on the lookout for a hot snowman!
999 has been the emergency number in England for years ... ok, so now the question - how do you hide/see a snowman in a blizzard. Also, why not just take the coins and spoons instead of transporting a whole snowman ... them things do weigh a bit ....
Maybe somebody wanted to hide a body in the snowman?
(as in an Old Time Radio program "The Saint" epi...)
Even if the police went and found the thing, how could she prove it was hers? Guess they would need to hold a snowman line-up :)
Chief Inspector Simon Black sounds like a drama queen. It’s not like the British cops are maintaining public safety.
It will probably turn out to be a gang of ‘Asian Youths’, and the woman will be arrested for a hate crime.
Or maybe they didn’t just want the money, maybe they wanted a snowman and were too lazy to make their own. Next time, I’d advise the lady to make a real ugly snowman, so nobody in their right mind would want it - a snowman only a mother could love :)
The fag was gone?
Ever seen the snowmen in Calvin and Hobbs? Now those were real snowmen ....
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