Fifty Shades incidents cost Britain £ 377K

London Fire Brigade says 1,300 bedroom mishaps in 3 yrs

The popularity of erotic Fifty Shades trilogy by British writer E. L. James has led to an increase in Britons being stuck in objects like handcuffs, according to the London Fire Brigade.

The trilogy about bondage and sadomasochism seems to have inspired people to try innovative bedroom practices leading to callouts to the emergency services.

The London Fire Brigade has attended over 1,300 incidents involving people being trapped or stuck, often in everyday household items, since 2010. It also revealed that the number of incidents involving people being stuck or trapped in objects like handcuffs and toilet seats had risen over the last three years.

In 2010- 11, fire crews attended 416 incidents; in 2011- 12 this rose to 441 incidents; and in 2012- 13 this shot up to 453. A total of 307 people were injured as a result of these incidents. The London Fire Brigade said that each incident costs taxpayers at least £ 290, meaning the incidents have cost at least £ 377,000. In the last three years, the fire crews had been involved in 79 incidents involving people being trapped in handcuffs and nine instances of men with rings stuck on their sexual organs, the Fire Brigade revealed.

“I don’t know whether it’s the Fifty Shades effect, but the number of incidents involving items like handcuffs seems to have gone up. I’m sure most people will be Fifty Shades of red by the time our crews arrive to free them,” brigade’s third officer Dave Brown said.

In the past, fire crews have been called to a man whose manhood was stuck in a toaster, and another whose was trapped in a vacuum cleaner, the fire brigade revealed.