NANAIMO — For most, calling 911 is an emergency last resort for help. For others, it’s used to vent largely benign frustrations.
Whether it was a big box store refusing the return of an air fryer, a missing iPad or complaining about traffic, call takers with E-Comm 911 fielded a wide array of absurd calls for help this year.
Police dispatcher Bailey Mitchell said she personally fielded more than a few oddball questions and concerns.
“We got quite a variety of this list, there’s a couple of parking complaints, some consumer parking complaints. There’s one about oversized luggage at the airport, a hornet in an apartment, a bad haircut, and I actually took a call about a broken dishwasher.”
In no particular order, the top 10 usual calls for service this year were:
- Their luggage exceeded the carry-on limits
- Walmart wouldn’t return an air fryer
- Their dishwasher was broken
- Someone parked at Starbucks and went into a grocery store instead
- A non-electric car parked at an EV charging station
- They wanted to complain about traffic
- They got locked out of their Airbnb
- They left their iPad at the SkyTrain station
- They wanted help getting a hornet out of their apartment
- They were unhappy with their haircut
Mitchell said while the nature of the calls may seem harmless, 911 is a finite resource and every call must be treated as an emergency until dispatchers can determine otherwise.
“Every time that we receive these calls for 911, they’re tying up the lines and using these resources that could be spent helping people who are in life-threatening emergencies.”
E-Comm 911 handles around 99 per cent of 911 call volumes across B.C., fielding roughly two million calls annually.
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