We wrote about the matter, among other places, in the article The Child Is Not Breathing, My Legs Are Going Numb – Residents’ False Alarms. People call about trivial matters, unaware that in this way they engage emergency services that may at that moment be needed somewhere where someone really requires their help.
For example, a 34-year-old man called the emergency medical service in Lubin, saying that he required immediate assistance because… his legs were going numb. The emergency team could not get into the apartment. Additional services were sent to the scene. Police officers and paramedics tried to get inside, but no one answered. They notified the fire service, which forced the door open. Inside—once again—there was no one. After a while, the man who had made the call emerged from hiding; he had been watching the emergency services’ operation the entire time. He explained to the police officers that he had alerted the emergency service because he had become stressed. He was fined 500 zlotys.
As it turned out, residents of our county also sometimes call firefighters and police officers about trivial matters. We decided to check what the situation looks like in the case of the Bolesławiec Municipal Police.
As senior inspector Dorota Liebert told us, municipal police officers receive significantly fewer calls of this kind from residents. Still, such reports do happen. Once, someone notified the officers that a bat was sleeping on the windowsill in their apartment.
Another time—in early spring—a stork perched on a lighting pole by one of the schools in Bolesławiec. It was seemingly nothing unusual, but the Municipal Police’s phones began ringing constantly—people were concerned because they thought something had happened to the bird, that it was injured. On another occasion, our officers received a report about “two sad pigeons” released in the Market Square by a young couple. According to the caller, the pigeons were sad because… they were waiting for their owner.
Another absurd report concerned children playing hide-and-seek who were… calling out too loudly when they had been found. It also happens that residents of villages near Bolesławiec call the Bolesławiec municipal police officers and ask them to intervene in the case of a dog running loose. “We cannot catch the animal; all we can do is provide the number of the appropriate municipal office,” explains D. Liebert.
The Municipal Police also once received a report about a flooded apartment. It was by no means a false alarm, but how could these officers help in such a situation? “We could possibly contact PWiK or the property manager,” the municipal police officer adds.
Why are there relatively few reports of this kind? As the officers speculate, it is probably because the Municipal Police numbers in Bolesławiec—landline and mobile—are not typical emergency numbers. People who want to notify the municipal police about something in this way pay for the call. Could this be a way to deter pranksters?