Dog makes 'accidental' 999 call to West Mercia Police
A call made by a dog was among the accidental 999 calls received by the police force covering Shropshire.
West Mercia Police Operations and Communications Centre received at last half a dozen accidental 999 calls on one day this week.
It has led to police to issue a warning to people, particularly with storing and using mobile phones.
On Wednesday it tweeted: "Six accidental 999 calls – kids playing with phones, phones in pockets. Please take care – but don't be scared to call 999 in an emergency
"Silent 999 call, officers were deployed as we could not make contact. Thankfully all in order, accidental 999 call made by the dog!"
Chief inspector Sean Kent, of West Mercia Police, said: "It is a big issue, particularly at this time of year.
"The accidental calls come mostly from mobile phones. When people wear causal, summer clothing they often don't have recognised pockets.
"They might end up putting their phones in a jean pocket or around their waist and don't even realise its there.
"Also, a lot of people don't realise they can't lock the number nine on their phones. You can't bar a phone from making emergency calls.
"People stick their phones in the back pocket which then keeps randomly making 999 calls.
"They get put through to a BT operator and if the call sounds muffled or they can't hear anything they will always get passed to police.
"Someone has to make an assessment.about whether it is crime in action or classic case of an inappropriate dial.
"Most of the time, fortunately nothing is happening but it does take up our time and ties up the phone lines. A lot of the time an accidental call is not very quite exciting."
Chief inspector Kent added: "We try and make an assessment of the call, on many occasions the number the call was made on is known to us and we can see if it has phoned us before. If we have an address we can follow it up.
"On other occasions if it is a pay as you go we may not be able to pinpoint where the call has come from and we are not able to deploy to that."
Recently police warned festival-goers at the Glastonbury Festival to check their phones and avoid calling 999 with their phone in their pocket.
They had been experiencing a high number of 999 calls from the site area.
