To ask why you've phoned the police?

[oneskip]

It's given as advice on here all the time but who has ever dialled 999 and was it for something major?

I've called for football fans fighting and letting off flares at cars, so genuine emergency.

About 20 members of the same family having some internal dispute that could only be solved with baseball bats. Rang 999 and the operator was very concerned that they'd broken into our house because it was so loud. Explained that we were quite safe and the noise was 5 doors down. Police turned up about 20 minutes later when things had calmed down 🙄

Distant neighbour always let her husband back when he came out of prison even though he was very violent to her. Had already reported it to social services because of the children and I passed a message to her 15 year old son via one of his friends to let him know he could always knock in an emergency. A few weeks later her 11 year old daughter came banging on the door screaming that he was killing her mum. Police came straight away and arrested him. They moved but a couple of years ago I bumped into the son who'd have been about 19 and he thanked us for keeping an eye on them.

Once year ago when some neighbours were fighting in their garden- I could see from the bedroom window that there was a male pushing/ dragging a woman while two small children watched and screamed.

When my son rode his bike in to a metal fence and came home with a huge lump on his head, vomiting, talking nonsense and falling asleep. In the end it was quicker to drive him to the hospital than wait for an ambulance.

I also had to call an ambulance for a baby at work (a nursery) but the story would be outing so I won't go in to it. The baby is now about 6 years old and fine!

Not surprising as neither the call handling centre nor those attending are likely to be "local" to the incident. The days are long gone when 999 calls were automatically routed to a local police station. Now they go to a central handling centre covering the entire county, or even in a different county. Same with those attending, they may be based locally to you (i.e. local station) but probably live miles away, again possibly in a different county. It's a few decades since "local knowledge" was part of basic training. They work by SatNav now.

Man with hatchet entering neighbouring property at 2am and doing something that made the male inhabitant scream. From what I hear, the guy deserved it, but still...

My ex had been seeing another woman. He stopped seeing her. She killed herself. Her mum barged into our house on the day of the post mortem. She was hysterical, demanding to see my ex. He hid in the living room and refused to talk to her. I rang 999. She was, understandably, mad with grief. The police officer who attended tried to get my ex to speak to her. He still refused. Police officer got her to leave. She spat at me.

A riot outside my house. 30 men were trying to kick my neighbours front door in. I ran out and pulled his wife and kids out and into my house. He fucked off over the back wall and left them.

Twice. Once when a neighbour was having a party and one of his guests dogs got in a fight with own dog and it spilled out into the street. The neighbour was bleeding trying to pull them apart and then his daughter (about 10 years old) went running out and was trying to get the dogs apart. She ended up really badly injured.

Then once because a house in my mum cul de sac used to have loads of cars parked all over. I pulled in one night to someone setting fire to them all.

Once, when someone was trying to kick the door in of the pub my ex was living upstairs from at the time. They came fairly quickly but apparently didn't see anyone in the vicinity and said it was probably kids being stupid.

My across the hall neighbour called once when my ex was off his tits on coke and headbutted me. The police never came.

Phoned an ambulance twice. Once when I found a teenage girl unconscious in the street. Put her in the recovery position and she eventually came to, sat with her for almost 40 mins trying to keep her on her side and hold her hair back as she vomited profusely. The ambulance never came. A passing police car noticed us and stopped to help.
Another time when there was an incident at work and a colleague was injured. Called for the fire brigade in the same incident.

Escaped huskies ate my friends chickens and where being quite aggressive so we shut them in the large chicken coop. Owner wouldn't come. Dog warden wouldn't come and said call the police. They turned up 3 days later after the owner retrieved them a few hours later and I updated the police. They still turned up 3 days later though...

Knife threat at work. Called the police. They turned up 5 hours later after my DH scared them off. They then went and hit someone round the head with a steel pole. The poor guy was in hospital for 6 months.

Not sure it's worth calling the police for even urgent things any more unless you live in a city with a large police force!

because I thought someone was trying to break in to the house.
but it was just a milkman training a new milkman which is why there were two of them and they had a torch.

The house next to me was being broken into., in the middle of the day! The lines were so busy I couldn't get through. It was horrendous. Luckily a few of the neighbours were around, one being a retired police man and they sorted it until the police finally arrived.

I phoned 999 earlier this year because we saw a man climbing over the railing of a bridge on the 70 mph stretch of the A2 and were concerned that he planned to jump .

Thank you

The police found me unconscious and they called for an ambulance, I came round when the paramedics got here, the police explained why they were at my house but under the circumstances they wouldnt take it any further, it actually felt like they were doing me a favour by not pursuing it so no apology.

I rang 999 when I heard my (thankfully) ex neighbour shouting 'she's stabbed me'. She clearly hadn't as he was arrested and I wasn't impressed as the police pushed him over my car bonnet to cuff him! I wouldn't have put it past her to stab him though as she was as rough as anything.

I rang 101 when I saw a dog running down the road and was transferred to 999 as it was classed as an emergency.

The only other time I've dialled 999 for the police was when I was driving behind a car that was weaving all over the road. They weren't interested and told me to stop following, which I couldn't as I needed to go the same way, and to report it online!

A loose horse
A herd of escaped sheep
A strange man screaming and attacking cars

Twice in the last 3 weeks! Both for ambulance. First time my mum had a stroke. Then she got out of hospital and that night she fell down the stairs and broke her neck!
And once at work for a customer having a seizure.

I rang the non emergency line to confirm my ex is a gaslighting bastard when he claimed to be "under police protection" due to a "major threat to his life" I said I believe he is lying to me but just in case would you be obliged tell me if my children are at risk being around him because of this "major threat" obviously they can't confirm if he actually was under police protection what they could tell me was that if someone has such a significant risk to his life that they had to move him to a safe house they would be liasing with me and social services would be involved to protect the children which is abit obvious but not what he wanted me to believe

I called the non emergency number a couple of years ago after seeing several horses grazing at the side of the main road at 4am on my way to work. It was reported in the local paper later that day, the Police had struggled to find the horses who had escaped from a nearby field.

When I saw a pedestrian walking along the outside lane of a motorway.
Someone else had already reported it but not given a location.
I was able to give more details and they said they would make it top priority and dispatch a car immediately.

I called 999 last week, a young girl was trying to jump off a bridge, luckily 2 builders jumped out their car and went up and pulled her over to safety.

after I was beaten up and raped in my house and the guy kept coming back- 20 years ago.

when someone set a bonfire in the car park behind my old house - approx 18 years ago.

my nan collapsed and I didn’t know if she had had a stroke so called for an ambulance - about 10 years ago.?

when my baby was poorly - mind you, that was the 111 who I rang and sent an ambulance so I didn’t ring 999 then- 2 years ago.

so I think I’ve dialled 999 three times in my 45 years.

Never 999 but have called the non-emergency number to report an accident (car hit mine and didn’t stop), and for druggies hanging about in the close.

Yes last week for the first & hopefully last time, my husband had collapsed. Ambulance arrived within ten minutes 😊super impressed. Gave him morphine & taken to urgent care. later that night, he passed a kidney stone

Called once when me and DH were passed by a car at easily 100mph on an A road, by the time they’d answered the car had hit a house and smashed through a wall.

Called a week before school holidays as a car had pulled out of its drive and hit my daughter. Still waiting for a visit/call…

For an horse running in the middle of the main road in a small and pitch dark village.

For help locating my child's friend who was making a suicide attempt.