The Met have released audio recordings of pointless emergency calls, revealing the strange and stupid reasons people sometimes dial 999.

As ridiculous as some may seem, wasted calls potentially put other lives in danger by forcing emergency callers to wait.

Between January 1 and November 30, the Met's command and control call centre took more than 2 million calls.

During that period, 21,733 calls were recorded as hoaxes.

Chief Superintendent David Jackson, who is in charge of call handling for the Met, said: “Whilst some people will find these calls funny, they take away police resources at a time that police numbers and funding are stretched, and we must continue to make savings across the service.

“Imagine if one of your friends or loved ones was in need of the police as quickly as possible and it turned out we could not help because we were having to deal with one of these hoax calls – I’m sure that you, like us, would be devastated and extremely annoyed.”

Whistling bus driver:

On November 25, a female member of the public called police to report that her bus driver had been whistling throughout her journey.

The bus doors won't open:

On July 6, a male caller phoned to tell the call handler that a bus driver had shut the door in his face, when in fact the bus had broken down and no one was allowed on board.

http://news.met.police.uk/videos/999-bus-doors-wont-open-41334

Cold breakfast:

On September 19, a man called 999 to report that his breakfast had not been served quick enough at a central London pub.

http://news.met.police.uk/videos/999-cold-breakfast-41340

KFC ran out of chicken:

On March 21, a member of the public phoned up because a fast-food restaurant had run out of chicken.

http://news.met.police.uk/videos/999-fast-food-restaurant-41338

Happy new year!

On New Year's Day, a woman called police to wish them a Happy New Year.

http://news.met.police.uk/videos/999-happy-new-year-41337