Child calls 111 to invite police over for playtime - and they turn up
'Can I tell you something?... I've got some toys for you'
An emergency call made by a four-year-old New Zealand boy asking for police to come over and check out his toys prompted a real-life callout.
Police in the South Island city of Invercargill dutifully visited the child's home and admitted his toys were indeed "cool".
While they do not encourage children to ring the emergency number, officers said the call was “too cute not to share”.
The call begins in standard fashion, with the emergency operator saying: “This is police, where is the emergency?”
After a pause the little boy hesitantly says, “Hi”, and then “Police lady?”
“Yes,” the dispatcher says. “What’s going on?”
“Um, can I tell you something?” the boy asks, before adding: “I’ve got some toys for you.”
“You’ve got some toys for me?”
“Yep. Come over and see them!”
A man then picks up the phone from the boy and confirms the call was a mistake and there was, in fact, no emergency.
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But keeping the boy's dreams alive a police dispatch call goes out to officers: “There is a four-year-old there who is wanting to show police their toys, over.”
An officer pounces into action, saying: “Yeah I’m one up, I’ll attend to.”
Police said the officer, identified only as Constable Kurt, attended the address, whereupon he was shown a selection of toys.
He later confirmed to his fellow officers that, as he had testified, the boy did indeed “have cool toys”.
The force also shared a photo of Constable Kurt with the boy sitting happily on the bonnet of his police car and wearing the officer’s hat, saying the lad had even ben treated to seeing its flashing lights in operation.