A police force has appealed to the public to only use its 999 call service for life or death emergencies after one caller rang up about his Halloween pumpkins.
West Yorkshire Police shared a recent call that they had answered from a man in his local Morrisons . In the confusing conversation, the shopper appears to have mistakenly believed that he was owed four free pumpkins with the purchase of a Halloween doll and became embroiled in a row with supermarket staff over the issue, The Mirror reports .
After being asked by the call handler what his emergency was, the man said: “What it is, I’ve just been in Morrisons and I’ve just been sold a clown… whatever it is.
READ MORE: Morrisons shoppers accuse supermarket of ‘ripping people off’ with £9 jar of coffee
“She gave us a pumpkin. Now she’s taken it back off us. We bought this believing we were going to get four pumpkins with it,” the disgruntled shopper complained.
“Now she’s taken one, and she already gave us that one!” he added. The shopper went on to explain that he believed he would be getting free four pumpkins with the doll.
“There’s nothing stating pumpkins sold separately. So I’ve come back in querying it, and she’s took the pumpkin back off me.” He accused the shop worker of “theft” for taking away his pumpkin, suggesting that the police check the shop’s CCTV footage.
But the call handler soon interrupted the man to have a stern word with him. “You’ve rung 999, which is for life or death emergencies, about pumpkins. It’s not a life or death emergency, and it’s not a theft,” he was told.
The operator instructed the man to speak to Morrisons over his complaint, before quickly ending the call. West Yorkshire Police shared the recorded conversation on social media, explaining the impact that such calls can have on the ability to do their jobs.
“Please don’t ring 999 if you’re in dispute with your local supermarket about pumpkins,” they urged. “A call like this could prevent us from dealing with a genuine life or death emergency.”
The police added that they receive 120 calls each day on average to their 999 line that are not a life or death emergency. “999 should only be called in an emergency situation - think before you call,” they said.
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