Sex toys and other odd 111 calls

"We’re always dealing with strange people and strange events, and they’re not all sex events."

Bruce Irvine

A New Plymouth sergeant has heard of police being called to some strange scenarios, and recently added another 111 call to that weird list.

On Wednesday four teenage boys wandered around a Pukekura Park playground waving a large sex toy in full view of children.

A worried parent called 111.

By the time police arrived there the sex toy-wielding males were gone.

This may not be the weirdest 111 call New Plymouth Sergeant Bruce Irvine has heard of - but it’s pretty close.

‘‘We get called to some pretty strange things,’’ Irvine said.

The call that alerted police to the boys swinging around a dildo at a Pukekura Park playground is the first sex toyrelated incident Irvine can remember being called about, but is far from the first sex-related call.

‘‘Some of the things we get called to are people having sex in places.’’

Irvine can remember 111 calls reporting people having sex on the beach, in a back yard, on the bonnet of a car, and at other interesting locations.

‘‘Over the years we’ve seen people doing that in all sorts of places.’’

But rather than instantly arresting and charging people, Irvine will occasionally have a laugh, and then think about what a normal member of the public would think of the situation.

‘‘You’ve got to look at the circumstances.’’

Irvine said he remembers one time police were called to a location in the New Plymouth city centre where two people were having sex on the bonnet of a car at 3.30am in front of 60 youths who were ‘‘three-parts pissed’’.

‘‘Everyone was cheering them on,’’ Irvine said.

‘‘They all thought it was hilariously funny.’’

‘‘They were clearly not offended by the behaviour.’’

Irvine said the choice of location was inappropriate, but said police have to analyse the situation and decide between telling the love-makers to piss off, or arresting them.

He said it would have been a similar situation with the sex-toy-at-playground incident had they found the offenders, which Irvine admitted his initial reaction was ‘why would we be called?’

In this case, there were children on the playground, so the informant was right to call the police about the inappropriate behaviour.

‘‘In the face of that it’s publicly offensive and we should probably have a look,’’ Irvine said.

‘‘But the fact there’s a sex toy there doesn’t make it offensive.’’

But Irvine said in every situation police analyse whether or not a normal member of the public would think it was right to prosecute an offender and go from there - especially situations like these.

‘‘Would a normal member of the public think it was appropriate to charge them?’’

He said this is what they call the public interest test.

‘‘We’re always dealing with strange people and strange events, and they’re not all sex events,’’ Irvine said. ‘‘There’s never a dull moment.’’ When asked about the times when people have phoned 111 and had no reason to, Irvine thought back to an incident in the 80s.

Irvine said a new constable had started in Stratford and was staying in an accommodation block with elderly neighbours.

Not long after the constable started the Stratford police received an emergency call from one of the constable’s neighbours.

Irvine said she’d called to say it started raining and to let the constable know that she’d pulled his washing in.

‘‘It was one of the funniest ones.’’