To ask why you've phoned the police?

Yes numerous times.

Mostly for people mostly walking on or sometimes cycling on the motorway in the middle of the night (well 4.30am!)

Seems an occupational habit when your child is a swimmer and you're out very early every day!

I think it's also the preferable time people do these stupid things as they think it's safer!

Also for finding a child at 4.30am walking her dog down a main road and she couldn't remember where she lived! Her poor parents when they were contacted and came. They were mortified. The kid just kept saying "dog wanted a walk" 😂

Another time for finding a non verbal child with Sen walking around having also escaped! That poor parent too.

I called 999 after seeing someone sat on the edge of a bridge over a very busy duel carriageway.

Never anything in the new afterwards so assume it was an ok ending.

For some reason the YouTube vid in my previous post has wiped out the phrase which is "this bus is under attack, please dial 999".

Jo

Police, we were driving through north London and saw what seemed to be a running skirmish. They were already on the way.

Fire three times, including the time when the house next door (attached, vacant) was burning down. The other two fires looked serious, but were some distance away, and away from buildings, so I was unsure about calling, but the call handlers were very reassuring.

999
• on a bus in London that came to a very sudden stop and an elderly man broke some bones (ambulance)
• on a bus when a fight broke out (police)
• when a bin at Euston was on fire (fire service)
• when a man collapsed in the street (ambulance)
• "" - (police) a couple of those. One was aggressive drunk man refusing to alight, other was set off in error and the bus drove off so I had to ring the police back and explain - they were fine about it.
• getting help for a rough sleeper who was possibly asleep but from their position seemed to have lost consciousness quite suddenly (ambulance)

101
• business intruder alarms going off (telephoned a few times over the years)
• someone waving a weapon around, though by themselves in a field
• reporting antisocial behaviour by a man to me outside a shop, gave a statement in-person, but the CCTV didn't have any film in so that was that.

61016 (British Transport Police)
• texts about antisocial behaviour on trains, e.g. someone trying to ride a bike at speed on a train platform close to the edge, someone else holding court and haranguing passengers argumentatively, though not threateningly (he was just really annoying and drunk).

Twitter DM
• letting a local force know that an aggressive beggar was back on the streets after his court case, gave a statement, he went back to court but I wasn't needed.

US Police (Kentucky, phone, email) and London Police (phone, email and in person)
• Young man living in Kentucky keeps tweeting me inappropriate comments, photos and videos of himself that I could really do without. Grateful for the Atlantic Ocean keeping him far away!

Jo "speed dial" Brodie ;)

Unfortunately, I have had to call a few times. Once an intruder smashed the glass in my front door in the middle of the night but thankfully were put off when my dog started barking. The police came shortly after with police dogs to look for the person but they didn't find them.

Another time in a different house there was a ruckus in the street and out of my window I saw multiple men with machetes and baseball bats. Armed police came and caught a few of them.

I called when my brother went manic after taking drugs and was aggressive and cutting himself. This was very upsetting, especially as my family are very mild and do not take any drugs. I didn't know he was doing this.

Each time, the police have been fantastic. I'm reassured that when I need them they come quickly. In my case they always came within 5/10 minutes.

Yes to a woman running around the local park screaming while holding a very bemused looking baby (old enough to sit up). It seemed to be a domestic but then it became clear the man she was shouting at didn't have a clue who she was or what he'd done to anger her. At one point she literally just picked up the baby and screamed as she sprinted across the park... but then just sat on a bench like nothing was wrong. The police came straight out but I don't think they caught up to her as she had run off shortly before they arrived.

We also once saw a woman sitting on the edge of a bridge over a main road and called that in too. They said they were already on their way.

I rang 999 when my late DH was having a psychotic episode due to overdosing on Parkinson's drugs. He'd got the huff with me and DD and said he was going out. I could track him on Find Friends, he went into Town, the City and West End. A bit later I checked and he was at Heathrow airport! My niece, who is an ex copper, said ring 999 and they were amazing. They went and found him and talked to him, persuaded him not to get on a flight to Johannesburg and we went and picked him up. Not long after, he spent 8 weeks in a psychiatric unit where they adjusted his medication. He removed me from Find Friends though

1. when my waters broke and I started haemorrhaging in pregnancy
2. when a group of people set up a sound system outside my window at 3am and started blasting music so loud my windows were shaking

Once for the police. A group of teenagers on a bus were shouting racist abuse at the driver, trying to take people’s phone and threatening people with a knife.

Twice for an ambulance. Once a parent fell and had a head injury and once for a little girl having a seizure in the street.

When we got broken into.
When I saw a girl no older than 4 with a black eye screaming in her front garden, whilst adults were arguing inside the house.

Both times they were out to us within 10 minutes.

Years ago called (I think 999) when I saw teens vandalising a public building. No police came....

A couple of years ago someone stole my bag on the beach. After I got it back (with cash and cards missing) I reported it to the police. They took details. I never heard from them again. I wasn't surprised.

I guess I should be glad I've never had a more pressing emergency.

I seem to call all the time.

1. A local man with known MH issues was trying to put a chair through a window of my workplace
2. The same man walked into my workplace and started verbally assaulting customers. Would not leave. (This man would always come and apologise when in remission but was impossible to reason with when in relapse)
3. Reported to 101 a group of teenagers who were smoking weed every night on a bench outside our building.
4. Witnessed a school boy being beaten up be older teenagers outside my allotment. Got the boy behind the allotment fence and called the police.
5. Witnessed three men outside my house threatening a neighbour with a knife
6. Witnessed drunk fight on my street where one of the men was threatening to knife the other.

We have since moved from this area. My partner tells me off every time I call the police. He thinks I should mind my own business. I disagree.

Thought neighbour was being burgled. Turned out they were just really, really messy and looking through their stuff for something at midnight!

I’ve called 000 a few times since we’ve been here (Australia) never called 999 when I was in the uk.

There’s been road accidents usually vehicle vs kangaroo (which will completely destroy your car) in dangerous spots on rural roads.

Lots of calls for cows on the road or flood water blocking roads.

Once for a welfare check on a neighbours toddler, he was removed by social services for neglect.

The craziest time was when the local farmer was firing a cannon in the field behind our house. He was a bit eccentric and didn’t see an issue with it - the police disagreed! We hadn’t been in that house long but he obviously did it regularly as his livestock wasn’t bothered at all.

We did have one attempted break in on NYE but our dog bit them and they ran - it was a small village and pretty much everyone was watching the fireworks, luckily the police were at the end of the road and caught them as they ran. The torn trousers and blood gave away that it was them.

I have multiple times when my child has made suicide attempts 😢

Also for DV in the past.

The times I’ve called 999 for police are:

• an intruder hiding in my garden
• a time when I was sexually assaulted in the street
• an outbreak of serious violence in a pub I worked in
• someone breaking into my next door neighbour’s house
• a racist attack on a man on a train

We also witnessed a nasty car accident on a country road (happened right in front of us) a couple of years ago but it was DP who called 999 for police and ambulance while I was helping one of the injured drivers.

I’ve called ambulances a few times as well.

I called 999 for an ambulance once when someone was run over. Called the non emergency number a couple of times to report that I was followed by strange men.

Once when I saw a man hanging from a bridge over a very busy motorway.

Once, when I saw some youths attacking an older man with a plank of wood outside my house.

When our neighbour’s violent ex was banging on her door threatening her (they didn’t come as they were “too busy” 🤬)

When some youths were breaking into a local school’s bike storage

A couple of times for dangerous road obstructions (large chunks of metal etc) on motorways

Drove past a massive bloke throwing a tiny woman into a fence late at night. Pulled up in case she needed help but he approached aggressively and punched the window where my daughter was sitting.

Phoned 999, turned around and parked up where my dashcam could capture what was happening while waiting for police. Gave statements and dashcam footage the next day. She didn’t want to press charges but it went all the way to court and we attended as witnesses. He got quite a hefty sentence in terms of community services and fine and had to attend anger management. He was an ex-copper………

Once in my mid-20s for what I think was probably a student house party gone wrong — huge crowd of people drinking on the pavement in the dark, and running into and across the road and letting fireworks off. I was sure somebody was going to get hurt.

Once when the house alarm went off and there had been a recent spate of burglaries. Somebody had tried to break in, but was scared off by the alarm. They tracked them with a police dog, didn't catch anybody, but did a few weeks later with the same dog. So I like to think I provided some scent training!

1. group of young adults drinking vodka, smashing bottles and DRIVING their cars erratically around a carpark near my house
2. active burglary (I was watching a man break into a neighbours house) - this resulted in a high speed police chase and the helicopter being called out. I was very worried I had gotten it wrong and wasted a load of resources 😅
3. woman walking down the hard shoulder of the motorway - she looked to be Eastern European, was wearing traditional looking clothes and a headscarf (I often think about her and hope she is ok)
4. Man passed out and bleeding on a busy high street, I was the only one to stop and help 🙄
5. a car caught on fire in the carpark of a small block of retirement flats at the back of my house
6. woman screaming help etc at 2am, sounds of a struggle with a man (couldn’t see anything but it was loud enough to wake me from my sleep)
7. when my own house was burgled - I probably should of called none emergency, but I was in shock after waking up and finding we had been broken into and our cars etc where missing

I seem to be in the wrong places at all the right times 🫣

Driving along a dual carriageway and something was completely blocking one lane, it was metal with spikes across and bits sticking up and quite low to the road so you wouldn't see it until you were close. We were near an industrial area so presumed it had fallen off a works vehicle.