Saskatchewan RCMP’S wacky, non-emergency calls to 911
SASKATOON Help getting something off the top shelf. Assistance dealing with a grumpy bride-tobe. Answering questions about whether flying food is considered a weapon.
While Saskatchewan RCMP routinely deal with homicides and drug dens, assaults and thefts, the divisional operations communications centre also receives plenty of 911 calls that don’t meet the accepted threshold for an emergency.
“We couldn’t end January without sharing some of the ones that ‘missed the mark’ last year,” Saskatchewan RCMP said on its Facebook page, where this week it posted its top-10 unnecessary 911 calls of 2019, adding the hashtag: #Reasonsnottocall911 ...
■ A caller wanted RCMP officers to remove a visitor from their home.
The reason: the visitor had forgotten to lift the lid before using the toilet.
■ One person wanted to know if it was illegal for someone with a pacemaker to use a hot tub. (The answer: no.)
■ A caller sought assistance from RCMP because his fiancée “was in a bad mood and not helping with their upcoming wedding preparations,” RCMP said.
■ Police were buzzing over this one: RCMP said someone reported the theft of their “personal intimate device.”
■ A caller was unable to reach their pharmacy by telephone, so the caller dialed 911 to see if an RCMP member could pick up the order. Among other household requests made to 911 last year: a too-short caller asking for a tall officer to reach an item on the top shelf, and a caller hoping the local detachment could send someone to remove a large insect from their toilet bowl.
■ One concerned caller found a lost baby bear cub. So they put the cub in their vehicle. To no real surprise, the caller was unsure what to do next.
■ The question posed by a caller: If someone threw a potato at another person, would the potato be considered a weapon?
■ In another instance, what RCMP described as an “upset 911 caller” needed to know if throwing a pickle at someone could result in an arrest. (The answer to both: maybe.)