Wrong Durham... but we can save you anyway
QUICK-thinking British police call handlers have been praised for saving a woman targeted by an intruder 3,400 miles away in Canada.
The frightened victim accidentally sent Durham Constabulary’s control room a live chat message after the raid in Durham, Canada. She typed: “I need help, he is going to come, he is in the house” before falling silent.
Realising she had meant to contact a competely different police force, the call handler kept the chat open while colleagues investigated.
They then got touch with their counterparts at Durham Regional Police Service in the province of
Ontario. Within 30 minutes of the initial message Canadian officers arrived at the scene in the small town of Ajax on Lake Ontario to find a 35-year-old man in the house.
He fled but was cornered in a yard then tasered and arrested.
His victim suffered some injuries, while the man has been charged with offences including breaking and entering, forcible confinement and disobeying a lawful order of court.
Inspector Andrea Arthur, head of the UK Durham force’s control room, said: “The team remained calm and managed to help our Canadian colleagues resolve the situation quickly and professionally.”