Thursday - August 28, 2008

A CALL TO THE POLICE. QUICK PLEASE, THERE’S A BURGLER HERE. REPLY, SOLVE THE PROBLEM YOURSELF.

Hey, not a joke.  Apparently that’s the message in reply to a 999 call to the police.  999 in UK is 911 in USA.

999 call answered with police text saying: solve it yourself
A couple who dialled 999 to report a burglary at their neighbour’s house received a text message from police asking them to investigate it themselves.
By Gordon Rayner Chief Reporter
Last Updated: 3:23AM BST 28 Aug 2008

A couple who dialled 999 to report a burglary at their neighbour’s house received a text message from police asking them to investigate it themselves.

Cambridgeshire Constabulary contacted Lloyd and Suzanne Bishop an hour after their 999 call to explain that it was too short-staffed to send anyone to the scene.

The message read: “Lloyd. Following on from your call earlier on to the police, please can you contact us if you are able to establish what has been stolen and where from?

“At this time we’re struggling to get the police to attend general calls for service, many thanks.”

Mrs Bishop, 29, from Cambridge, said she was “gobsmacked and disgusted” by the response after she and her husband saw a man smashing a padlock on their neighbour’s shed before jumping over a fence.

She said: “To text the person who calls and ask them to investigate what had been stolen, broken into and who did it is just incredible. It gives burglars the idea that they can get away with it because the police aren’t going to send anyone out. What message does that send to my neighbours here? Is it pointless to call police if you see someone breaking in?”

Mrs Bishop and her husband, who are full-time carers for their two-year-old daughter Lizzie, who has special needs, were woken at 5am on Sunday by the sound of the padlock being smashed and saw a man in a white T-shirt running off. Mr Bishop, 33, immediately called police and was assured that officers would check the area for the culprit.

He said: “I would have thought they should have been able to catch a man in a white T-shirt as there couldn’t have been many running around the area at five in the morning. The police are asking us to do their job. It makes you wonder what we pay our taxes for.”

Despite his reservations, Mr Bishop did as he was asked, and looked into the shed, which did not appear to have had anything taken from it.

A Cambridgeshire police spokesman, said: “Due to the number of emergency calls we were unable to send an officer straight to the scene.

“All calls have to be graded by their urgency and, unfortunately, at this time there were a number of incidents, including reports of disorder and assaults, which police were attending.

“A text message was sent to the caller to explain that officers were unable to attend immediately and we apologise if this disturbed them.”

A spokesman from the Taxpayer’s Alliance said: “It is shocking to think things have got so bad that police are texting people to ask them to be volunteer sleuths.”

http://tinyurl.com/5av77z

Posted by Drew458     on 08/28/2008 at 08:53 AM   
Filed Under: • Crime • Daily Life • UK •  
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