Have you ever called the police?

[SpringSpringTime]

If so what for, and how did it work out?

Plenty of times over the years. Had a couple of nice chats with officers about my psycho ex stalking me, they never did anything but luckily he was a pathetic coward and never got near me again.

Used to have to call 999 regularly when I lived in a flat - a couple lived in the flat below me and he would regally best 7 shades out of her, several times there was more than one man in there. Came to a head when they had to call in backup for one incident, i never saw them again, I hope she was ok.

Just before lockdown I had to phone 101, I volunteer for a group of young people and someone was throwing rocks at the windows and climbing on the roof of the (rather isolated) building we were in. They were fab, turned up at the time I said our meeting would end, had a good look around and were very reassuring.
Generally they've always been really helpful.

• regularly beat, stupid phone!

I'm not sure if I spoke to ambulance or police but I once rang 999 and said both might be needed. I'd seen a guy laid out by the side of dual carriageway next to his motorbike. the bike was parked up properly but he was just on the floor in his leathers and helmet still - I was driving the other way so couldn't stop but pulled up asap and the operator said they would send someone - no idea what came of it, but he wasn't there on my way home

When I was pregnant and got mugged for my phone in broad daylight on my own road.

And a few times because my mum was having really scary psychotic episodes and needed to be sectioned. Broke my heart.

Twice. Once because there was a fight outside a takeaway, another time when my housemate was assaulted by her boyfriend.

I don't know the outcome as I wasn't directly involved but I don't think much came of it.

Yes, once because we found a woman who was very very drunk and didn’t know where she lived, we didn’t know what to do with her so we called the police. They took her with them and were very kind to her, i’m guessing she slept it off in a cell/managed to eventually remember where she lived.

The second time someone had beaten up my then boyfriend, I pulled him off and then a bouncer restrained him. The police arrived fairly quickly and arrested me, the guy who had beaten up my boyfriend said I had assaulted them both. So I had a lovely night in the cells, I was charged despite witnesses and cctv showing he was the assaulter

Yes, was nearly hit by a car driving down the wrong side of the motorway! I had to give a witness statement but not sure what happened at court. I know he was arrested for dangerous driving and that the car was stolen.

Yes once when I had a late night call from an unknown land line (200 miles away) it was a very frail sounding lady crying and not saying much.
I called the police who said they would trace the number and send some officers round immediately for a welfare check.

Once when my car was broken into. Spoke to like a call center person not an actual police officer. They just gave me a crime number for insurance purposes. Never heard from them again. Four cars in a row had been broken into, windscreens smashed. Was quite surprised they didn’t want to know actually. But I suppose it’s only cars.

Once I called the non emergency number to report someone driving really dangerously because I was pretty sure the car was stolen. They rang me back and asked me for a description of the driver.

Nothing else.

Many times....found out from DD1 that drunk ex was driving to pick up DD2 whilst off his face. They did nothing.

Rang when DD2 making suicide threats and I was a hundred miles away. They were brilliant.

An unknown Facebook user rang the Met to say they were concerned for DD2 after comments she'd made in a private group. They managed to trace where we lived (miles away) and sent a local officer. I was so grateful.

We had a family stalker. Called them when he started making comments about my then very young children. DV unit were amazing.

A few times:

I saw a lorry driving dangerously on the motorway, swerving in and out of lanes. DP was driving us, so I phoned the police and gave them the reg no and location / direction headed.

A man who disagreed with how I was driving followed me. I hadn’t driven into the yellow box at a junction and he was behind me. He got really irate and gestured and beeped at me. He then followed me to the supermarket (without me realising), got out of his car and cane storming towards me shouting “why didn’t you do what I told you to”, so I got back in my car and phoned the police.

I saw a man hit a woman on a night bus. I was young and scared, so moved upstairs and phoned the police.

I also reported a serial drunk driver on the crime stoppers website.

I don’t know what came if any of these.

Only once, when I was raped. The police were great then I have to say. As you can imagine it was a spectacularly shit situation but the rapist was found and jailed.

@ParkheadParadise I’m so sorry for the loss of your daughter. I can’t imagine the feeling of having people come to your door to have to tell you that.

Loads of times years ago in a professional capacity (I worked in roles with young people in care, young offenders and care leavers).

On a personal level I had to ring 999 to report a friend missing and in danger when she had a mental health crisis and went missing after stating her intentions to take her own life.

The police were excellent and, in fact, were better than the MH team my friend was under who basically said to me "it's her choice". The control room phoned me back when she was found (thankfully she hadn't carried through her plan but was in a very bad way mentally) and then sent an officer round to update me in more detail and check about the friends children.

Not for anything serious thankfully, just once when a worker from a nearby business park blocked our entire street with spectacularly bad parking, they came and lifted the car, they didn't park there again .

I've called the police twice. The first time I was a student. I'd only just moved in it was a hot night, windows were open, very airless.At about 11pm it sounded like a woman was being raped which went on for several minutes. I called the police - turned out they just had very noisy sex regularly which I realised after a while.

The second time was after I'd moved to another town, there seemed to be a stabbing in the alley taking place at the back of the house where we had a room (about 2am on a Friday vening). The noise woke me and my DP up. I called the police they said they were unable to come because they were attending a major incident on the trading park, could we investigate. We didn't, there was blood everywhere the next day.

Late at night, two men shoving a woman into a car, parked in a carpark outside my then flat. She was resisting a lot. The police said, 'oh yeah, we know who that is.' and didn't seem very bothered. The car drove away (couldn't see license plate) and I have no idea what happened.

Also for some poachers shooting a rifle in field outside my house late at night. Got a high powered torch and stormed outside swearing at them. In hindsight, a bad plan as I was home alone with a baby.

Yes. When I lived in central London in a garden flat. I was putting some washing in the washing machine at 1am totally naked. I looked up to see a man taking a photo of me through the window

I screamed, ran into the living room and hid! Then called the police. They were amazing. LOADS of them turned up. Some of them went back out looking for the guy and some of them stayed and thoroughly checked inside and outside of the property to make sure he had gone.

They even waited around the corner for a while after they had left, as, apparently, perpetrators often hang around and wait for the police to turn up (they get a thrill out of it) and then return to their intended victim when they think the coast is clear. I did not sleep well that night!

The more senior officer called me the next day to check I was okay. Such a positive experience. Apart from the scary part !

A few times actually.

Once when we witnessed a car crash in front of us - 999 call for police/ambulance/etc

I phoned 101 to report my DH missing when he didn't come home from work - very out of character. Turns out my gut feeling was right and he'd been in a bad crash.

Years ago when a crazy ex boyfriend broke into my house and smashed some things out because I had dumped him 🙄

Twice. First time was a guy battering another guy with a metal pole out in my street, second time was a drunk driver who smashed into a line of cars then got out and wandered about the street swearing.

Both times the call handler said that I wasn't the first to report the incident and police/ambulance were on the way. Never heard anything more about it.

Thank fuck I live in a nicer area now.

A neighbours guard dogs had escaped and were prowling round. I didn't want to go outside and knock on the door as they are trained to attack. I didn't have their number so I started calling 101 while I was waiting to be connected I saw the dogs attack a woman walking by. I put the phone down and called 999. Luckily she was able to get away and into someone's house. The police were great and I believe the neighbour was prosecuted.

Yes quite a few times. When I moved into my first house the very first night there was screaming coming from next door but one. A neighbour came from over the road - she had heard it too and asked if we should go round to see what was going on.

Instead I phoned the police, gave them the address. By the time they came the screaming had stopped. Only they knocked on next door's by mistake and when they got no answer they bashed the door down 🙈 Neighbours came home the next day to a boarded up door.

Another time I phoned when I found finger prints on my kitchen window. My house alarm had gone off the previous night so I presumed the 2 were connected. The police came in my house to take a look at the fingerprints - he rubbed it and it came off - yes it was MY fingerprints on the INSIDE from pushing the window open 🙈 It gave them a good laugh, they were really nice about it. I was mortified.

I was 16 and staying at my friend's house out in the countryside and didn't drive. Her parents were away and she decided to stay at her boyfriend's and sent me home on my own. Great friend.

I couldn't afford a taxi so decided to walk as it was only about 3 miles. It was about 9.30pm but winter, so it was pretty dark. We usually walked home at this time and had never had a problem before, though of course this meant that anyone who knew us, would know this too.

There were loads of farms and then before you got to my friend's house, a huge long bit of just fields. I was coming up to the last few houses before the fields when I realised there was someone behind me. I turned around and found that the person was wearing a hoody and had the hood pulled over their face, which straight away gave me a bad feeling. Also you didn't tend to see people out and about at that time, guess all the farmers went to bed early. I was sure it was a guy as they were taller than me (I am 6ft 2) and was quite bulky. I shone my flashlight at them but they turned away and I saw they had gloves on, it was winter but that also struck me as potentially sinister.

I went into the next farmhouse and tried knocking the door, but the lights were off and no one answered. When I turned around I could just about see him standing under a tree, but couldn't make out his face.

I hurried down the road and heard him behind me again. I knew there was a phone box coming up just before the fields so went into it and called the local police. They told me to stay there and they would come find me and to keep my foot under the door to hold it shut. Not that it would have made a difference really.

I couldn't see him anymore but it was pitch black away from the lights so was pretty freaked out. Police arrived and one stayed with me while the other went to look. Came back and said he saw someone near the trees ahead of me but they ran off when policeman approached. Because they had known to cut behind the phone box they knew he was a local as non locals wouldn't know about the short cut. Nothing much came of it.

A few months later there were two rapes in that area and the police came to speak to me again, but I couldn't be much help. Goodness knows what would have happened if the phone box had been out of order as it often was.

Yes in the last year. A group of teenagers were playing chicken on the ring road on the edge of Bristol. It's a national speed limit section and dual carriageway.

Yes quite a few times unfortunately.

Going back some years DPs ex was to put it nicely difficult and used to do things like attack me (once with secateurs), cut our phone lines and on one occassion burglary. We had to call the police quite a number of times and she was arrested at least 3 times from memory. She finally got a 9 months suspended prison sentence. She's left us alone ever since.

Another time because I saw someone chuck a holdall in a bin and sprint off in the city centre - obviously I wondered if it was a bomb. They called me back within 30 minutes to say they'd had it checked it was actually stuffed with Christmas tree lights I was very impressed by how quickly the worked that time.

Most recently because we were burgled by some random bloke - he wasn't clever since he forgot to turn off the tracking on the phones and the police simply followed him home. He had trouble explaining why he had our daughters bank card in his pocket!! They found evidence he'd committed a string of offences including fraud, multiple burglaries, attempted burglary and ABH. He's currently serving a 2 year sentence.

Yes.A drunk had put next door but ones house window in ( unprovoked) and I saw it happen.