Hoax calls revealed

A police force have revealed that among the hoax 999 calls they received last year was one from teenagers claiming Elvis Presley was chasing them with a stick.

Another caller called 999 to tell Bedfordshire Police his bum was on fire.

In total, around 800 fake calls were made to the Bedfordshire force, each of which has to be investigated until officers are sure it's not a genuine emergency - something which takes up valuable time and could risk delaying police in getting to real emergencies.

Inspector David Minney has been telling Heart "In many many cases it's either very difficult to establish that it's a hoax, or because of the seriousness of the call, we still must investigate to bottom it out to make sure that people are safe and well or we haven't had a serious crime committed."

Among the other hoaxes Bedfordshire Police regularly receive are calls from people worried about their exams the following day and calls about missing cats.  In some cases, callers swear and scream at police down the line.