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Man called 999 in UK to complain about KFC restaurant being closed

Police in the UK have urged people to think before calling emergency numbers, after one man calle...
Newstalk
Newstalk

17.22 28 Feb 2018


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Man called 999 in UK to compla...

Man called 999 in UK to complain about KFC restaurant being closed

Newstalk
Newstalk

17.22 28 Feb 2018


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Police in the UK have urged people to think before calling emergency numbers, after one man called 999 to complain about his local KFC restaurant being closed.

The call was made in the wake of the widespread closure of branches of the fast food restaurant earlier this month amid significant delivery issues.

Greater Manchester Police have released a recording of the call, saying the man took 48 seconds to 'clear the line'.

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The man in question called to complain: "I've got an emergency here. I don't know how you feel about this, but KFC is closed an I'm entirely not happy.

"I have to go to Burger King now," he added.

When asked by the operator if he was 'taking the mick', the man insisted: "I got told to call 999 for any emergencies, and this is an emergency".

Manchester Police Superintendent Mark Kenny observed: "While some will think this is a harmless prank or joke I want to reiterate the severity of this – we had 74 calls to 999 and 154 to 101 during the hour this came in, all of which needed our full attention.

“Our hard working call handlers answered all but one of the emergency calls, but 21 non-emergencies went unanswered. It’s not a stretch to say that, had this man not selfishly called for such a ridiculous reason, we would have been able to help more people who had a real reason to pick up the phone during that time."

He added: "We work as hard as we can to answer as many calls as possible but people like this, and others who either misuse the service or call us for reasons they shouldn’t be, put real strain on our already stretched teams."

Earlier this week, KFC UK & Ireland said more than 95% of its restaurants had reopened after the recent closures - albeit with more limited menus that usual.


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