To ask why you've phoned the police?

I live near a small rural town. I was driving past the boys school one Saturday morning a couple of years ago and saw a lad walking towards the school with a couple of machetes sticking out the back of his hoodie. He climbed the school wall and headed towards the school building. I couldn't believe what I was seeing and tried to rationalise, telling myself that maybe he was involved in something at the school and that the machetes were just props! Then I thought nope, and called the police. I asked if they wanted me to stick around, but they told me to drive away.

I drive off, but circled back and the police were already there! They called me that afternoon to repeat the description I'd given them, but they didn't update me. I still don't know if he was caught.

Also called them to help with horses loose on country roads. They called a nearby horse man, (don't know the technical term, (equestrian?), who came and secured them and knew exactly who they belonged to.

Once, about 10 years ago. Lived in a flat in Manchester and could hear a DV incident in the flat above during the night. I was both worried it would be traced back to me and also that I was over-reacting. Police were great. Nobody answered the door of the flat above until the police threatened to use force, so I think I did the right thing.

Cows 🐄 on the east coast main line and youths setting a bin fire on same railway

I've phoned a fair few times professionally in pubs/hotels/nightclubs for all 3 services and once for the coastguard as I worked in a place over looking the sea and saw a boat capsize.

From a personal pov, I witnessed a group of people kick in a door and drag someone out, he was left with horrendous injuries and it turned out to be mistaken identity as well. I gave evidence and they went to prison.

I also rang the non emergency number because someone was filling the litter bin near me with twigs and rags at 2am, there had been a spate of fires in bins and the like during the night and it looked suspicious, my dog actually scared them off by barking at the noises they were making, they were long gone by the time the police arrived but they looked at the bin and asked for a description and the fire service came out and emptied the bin - there were petrol soaked rags and kindling in it. I don't know if the police ever found them but the fires did stop.

When I saw someone leaning out of a car at speed on the slip road off the M40 at J10 and shooting at a second vehicle, in broad daylight in the afternoon!

I stopped at the services and phoned the police (before mobiles were common). An officer came didn’t bother trying to hide his contempt. He shared the shattering insider insight that people don’t normally shoot other cars in broad daylight in England; took down the good descriptions of the vehicles I gave him; walked off and doubtless filed the call-out under their capacious “Stupid Women” file. It was a total waste of time for both of us.

The second time was when a psychiatrist told me it was time to call the police while he, my mum, a mental health social worker and I were sheltering behind my car while a relative threw things at us. I was shaking so much I couldn’t press the buttons on my mobile, this was early 2000s, and I had to leg it up the drive to the village phone box. I felt terrible as I thought the police would come and physically overpower my relative, handcuff him and throw him in the van. It seemed like a terrible betrayal even though it wasn’t my decision to call them.

In contrast to my previous experience the police were beyond amazing. It was two young officers in uniform but they managed to talk him down, - at one point they were sat either side of him in the boot of his small hatchback at his request. They got him to go in the van willingly and took him to the high security ward at our nearest psychiatric hospital where he stayed for some time before being moved to a psych ward in another general hospital. Obviously it was an incredibly difficult time for us as a family but it is a continuing regret that I didn’t get round to contacting the local police to report how excellent those officers had been. I had intended to but life was very busy then.

The third time was after stopping at a McDonalds while working and seeing a little girl of about 8 or 9 beautifully looking after her quite big baby brother, getting him out of the buggy and into a high chair, feeding him, talking to him like a little mother, no adults in sight. I spoke to her her she was polite but clearly not keen to chat to me so I waited until after she’d left and the staff told me she was a regular and so good with the baby. No adults ever came with her but both children looked clean and well looked after and nicely dressed, as they did that day to me. They assumed she was looking after her brother while the parents were working and they kept an eye on her. I phoned the police after that and passed on all the above. I said the little girl was brilliant and both looked clean and well looked after in terms of clean clothes etc. but the fact she was so good at her role along with the staff saying she was a regular suggested it was a very common thing and both were incredibly vulnerable and she was far to young to be a sole carer. I thought there was a good chance they could identify her as the McDonalds had cameras and it was a bit off a dual carriageway but on the edge of a relatively new built building housing estate where she must have lived given she walked to the McDonalds with the buggy. I was keen to emphasise that the little girl hadn’t told me she looked after her brother on her own, - in case it got her into trouble with her parent(s) if the police or SS did manage to find her. The person I spoke to said I’d done the right thing to call them, which was reassuring as I did feel like a busybody.

Edited to add that the last wasn’t a 999 call. I phoned the non-emergency number.

I've called for:

My car being broken into (that was the non-emergency no though). They came with the fingerprint kit the next day.

Kids lighting fireworks and throwing them at each other in the playground near my house. I was watching from an upstairs window. Didn't turn up.

I once saw a break-in in progress at the back of a factory on a Sunday evening. They wanted the postcode and I said I didn't know, and surely they had a map and could find it from my description. No idea whether they turned up or not as I went home.

Violent neighbour argument up the road, young kids in the house, and they came to that one pretty quick.

I called them which is saw a group of people in balaclavas trying to cut their way into an ATM machine with an angle grinder.

Yes.

Which includes the police.

It's crystal clear the op is asking when people have called for emergency help not including needing an ambulance or the fire brigade. So - police emergency response required.

For a downstairs neighbour who was having a heart attack

When a doorstep salesman, great big bloke, would not take a polite no for an answer and put his foot in the door and started shouting at me. Got the door shut somehow and called police when he stood outside yelling threats. They came remarkably quickly.

Called police when enormous crash at house opposite turned out to be grandson, high as kite, putting in his grandmother’s bay window with a dustbin and threatening her . Sad story all round - police knew the backstory.

Ambulance x3 when I could not revert SVT episodes - all good now post ablation.

When my Dad was assaulting my Mum - I had to run next door and use their phone as we didn't have one at the time.

When exH went missing for 6 nights. Was found shacked up with a woman in a hotel room.

When exH (then H) was followed home and assaulted by a man with a gun. Yes, it was in the newspaper and yes, we both went to therapy.

When I left a note asking my neighbour to please keep the noise down as he was keeping my baby awake and he retaliated by screaming that he was going to set fire to my home whilst I was asleep. Police were next to no help. We moved.

When my friend text me the word "police" followed by a house number and postcode. Later found out her partner was abusing her and thankfully the police turned up before it got too serious and she was moved into a refuge with their two daughters.

Once had to let officers come check I was okay after DD accidentally called 999 whilst playing with my phone when she was about 18 months old. Never apologises so much in my life, and my phone is now child safe 😬

When I stumbled across a stash of sick pornography belonging to someone I (thought) I knew. Didnt hesitate to pick up the phone. Thought it was the right thing to do.

In hindsight wish I'd called the guys from the local pub rather than 999, because the police shat all over my life, screwed up the investigation with their utter incompetence and ignorance of the laws they're supposed to enforce, left me with PTSD that I still suffer with over a decade later, and dropped all the charges anyway.
He walked away free as a bird, my life was left in tatters.

Never again!

When I see arguments on here about how "just" our legal system is and how lucky we are to have it, I roll my eyes. Must be nice to live in such blissful ignorance.

Phoned police when I found 2 young children in their PJ'S in a subway when I was walking to work. Police were amazing.

Phoned police when we had an attempted burglary. It was attempted because I was in the house at the time.

Phoned police after my autistic child (was 11 at the time) was subjected to an attack by a group of 15 kids on his way home. But several people who saw it had phoned.
Police operators are great. The people officer who attended our home was shit. Kept telling DC to fight back. Tosser.

Once hearing violence from a neighbour towards his wife and once when my partner at the time attacked me.

I was a bit unsure about the neighbour because I didn't know exactly what was going on, but the call handler could actually hear what was going on from her end of the phone, and the police came round after and said I'd definitely done the right thing.

Recently I had to call 999 because there was a young man running down the road stark bollock naked I followed him while on the phone to the police it took 30 minutes for them to arrive. If the police had arrived faster the young man would have never made it into a park.
While I was on the phone to the police someone else was trying to get an ambulance and there was none in the area. 2 hours later they called back asking if ambulance was still needed.

Once when I found a three year old on her own. By the time the police came her grandad had come running up the street looking for her. He had been gardening and thought she was asleep, she woke up and went for a walk. Poor man was mortified.

The police were very kind

I rang them after being punched by some random woman ( I gave her a "dirty look" apparently). Luckily I was not hurt too badly, which is just as well because I was told "someone will be with you shortly". I told them the hotel I was staying in but nobody from GMP turned up or got in contact at all.

The one and only time I've called is when driving onto my estate a car had failed to stop at a t junction and crashed straight into a house. When I realised it wasn't a car parked on a driveway I pulled over. Although I didn't see it, it must have happened seconds before as no-one was about. It was lucky he didn't drive straight into me.

I called the police when I saw that huge haystacks had fallen in the road covering one side, a blind bend down a pitch black country road, could have caused a horrible accident / police were very grateful said I was public spirited !

Fighting outside the pub, neighbour got their windows smashed, woman deliberately drove into my car and then proceeded to bray on my windows and try and get into my car, several car collisions over the years not involving me but I was on the scene, multiple youths racing on unregistered dirt bikes on the streets and in the park, men stealing stone from someone's wall, neighbour got his car window put through, cars driving in erratic and extremely unsafe manners suggesting something was seriously wrong eg. Drifting across lanes on the motorway in a strange way (also had this on a local road where the driver spent more time on the wrong side of the road than the correct side). A regular customer in my old job who was drink driving, multiple shoplifting incidents when I worked in retail plus I was assaulted. Tried to call the police when my ex attacked me but he got to me before I could get to my phone.
Some have been 999, some 101, some were that long ago they were straight to the local station 😁.

Yes, when someone at a party I was at was behaving aggressively after mixing drugs, medication and alcohol.

I called for DV and stalking more than once, and being robbed. They were not helpful really.
I would avoid doing so now, unless I saw someone being attacked and I was the only witness.

When I was mugged politely by someone with a massive knife.

I called them for a welfare check because my horrible elderly neighbour (caused us misery for 20 yrs) is now suffering from dementia and I could hear her screaming and shouting and things crashing around her.

101 for a flasher at the end of our garden path. He ran off when I called for DH but we reported it anyway as it is on a quiet lane where a lot of women walk on their own ( with dogs and / or babies). I was surprised when they located him and out him on a ‘ programme’, even more surprised when they followed up with a call a few months later and told me that he wanted to apologise.

Before 101, terrible noise outside where we had parked our car ( residents’ parking in London) went out and the whole side of the car had been virtually torn off. The police didn’t believe us at first, they insisted it was a road traffic accident which we didn’t want to report. Fortunately a couple of chaps from the pub at the end of the road came along and said they had heard it from inside the pub! Someone else sitting outside the pub said they had seen a transit van lurching down the road.

Turned out the van had been used in an armed robbery and they were ‘making a getaway’, they didn’t get very far as one of their own wheels came off as a result of the prang.

still in London, we didn’t call the police about the disturbance late at night next door, because there was often something happening there. Just as well, as it turned out to be the police en masse raiding the house, one of them asked if they could go through our back yard to get over the wall and check out the back entrance. It was a bit quieter once the occupants were residing at Her Majesty’s.