"Please use 999 responsibly", say Nottinghamshire Police.

Nottinghamshire Police have released details of another irresponsible call to 999, this one to report a theft - a seagull had stolen their chips.

The force has now issued a fresh plea for the public to use 999 responsibly, as emergency call handlers still receive a number of spurious and misplaced calls which delay them from dealing with the most urgent calls.

Superintendent Paul Burrows, from Nottinghamshire Police’s Contact Management department, said: “The vast majority of the public understand that 999 is only for emergency calls but, despite the work we regularly do in the media, online and over-the-phone to explain to people how to use 999 responsibly, we do still receive a high number of misplaced calls to our emergency number.

“While some of the misplaced calls we receive range from honest errors of judgement to the more unusual, there is a serious point to be made here as every misplaced call our emergency call handlers receive has the potential to delay us from responding to genuine emergencies.

“All we’re asking is that people only call 999 in genuine emergencies and remember that there are other ways to contact us for less urgent enquiries, with the Nottinghamshire Police website - www.nottinghamshire.police.uk/advice - offering advice on hundreds of policing and non-policing issues and the 101 non-emergency number also available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”