Call the police, there’s a Tesco van outside

A RESIDENT in a wealthy Yorkshire village called the police after seeing a “suspicious” delivery van – saying “people around here don’t shop at Tesco”. The claim has been cited by North Yorkshire Police as an example of inappropriate recent calls made to its 101 non-emergency number.

Other examples include a caller who said: “I’ve set off to go on holiday and I’ve forgotten to put my bins out. Can the police go round and put them out?” Another asked if the police were able to give them directions to the Station Hotel, with another caller asking for advice after a sparrow flew into their kitchen window and died.

Further requests included: “Is 16.00 hours the same as four o’clock?” and “Your online complaint form asks for my full name but I only want to be known as ‘H’.”

The force has made a number of changes to the way its control room operates after a rise in the amount of time callers take waiting for a response. A report about the new system includes details of cases where police time has been wasted by unnecessary calls.

Last year the Metropolitan Police revealed that between Jan and Nov 2016 they received more than 66,000 prank and nuisance calls. The calls included: “A fox [is] walking outside the window and I wanted to report it in case it’s dangerous.”