An angry 999 caller has been criticised after ringing the police demanding they call off their helicopter searching for a missing woman - because it was disturbing his night's sleep.
The Metropolitan Police released a recording of the call, which caused outrage among members of the public. Accompanying the tweet was a message which read: "This call to 999 was about the noise being generated by a police helicopter. They were searching for a missing women who was later found with serious injuries to her arms."
It was followed with the hashtag: #ThinkBeforeYouDial.
In the recording, the caller starts by asking the emergency call handler what time it is. The call handler responds by saying: "Okay, have you got an emergency?"
"It's 2 o'clock in the morning," the angry caller responds. "And at the moment, there's a very noisy helicopter shining a beam of light above where I live and it's awoken me.
"Now this is utterly ridiculous and outrageous. Could you get that infernal machine out of the sky so that I can get some sleep?"
The caller handler responds by saying: "Okay, this isn't a life or death emergency. You have called a life and death emergency line to say a helicopter has woken you up."
The caller answers: "Look, I want some sleep. I want you to get that thing out of the sky."
The conversation ends with the call handler reprimanding the man for calling the police over such a matter and that they are 'very busy'. He then terminates the conversation.
The responses under the tweet showed how outraged people were at the caller's complaint.
"Wow...Just, Wow...," said @ES_News_.
"You can fly 10 helicopters over my house for a week if it means you save someone or are protecting us from the ‘misguided’ people!" said @TBo39515440.
@EJ_McGuinness said: "People who make these calls should be located, prosecuted and named & shamed for wasting police time. (Perhaps they are - as I always thought was the case with nuisance calls). It’s the only way."
And @jayzheather7 said: "People are very selfish in this country, but would be the first to want help if it was them."
