London: A woman in Britain has been called "completely irresponsible" after she dialled the police emergency helpline to report a stolen snowman.
The unnamed woman from Chatham, Kent, phoned 999 after she thought the case needed the involvement of police because she had used pound coins for the snowman's eyes and teaspoons for the arms, The Sun reported yesterday.
Kent Police later issued a transcript of the call which they received.
In it 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.'
When the operator asks "Who's gone?", the woman replies: "My snowman. I thought that with it being icy and there not being anybody about, he'd be safe," she continued. The stunned operator asks her: "Do you mean an ornament?" and 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 told her it was an emergency line and she should not be ringing it to report the theft of a snowman.
Chief Inspector Simon Black said: "We do have powers to prosecute people for misusing the 999 system, but in this case the woman genuinely thought this was a theft that she should report because she'd used pound coins for the eyes and teaspoons for the arms."
"This call could have cost someone's life if there was a genuine emergency and they couldn't get through. It was completely irresponsible.
"We have spoken to her and advised her what is a 999 call, and this clearly was not," he said.
