Emergency crews in Salford are warning over using 999 for non-emergency calls after a man called fire crews asking them to collect his toy helicopter from a supermarket roof.
At 2.20am on Sunday 18 October the man called Greater Manchester Fire saying his remote-controlled toy had crash landed on the roof of ASDA on Hampson Street, off Bolton Road in Pendlebury.
Call handlers notified the local police after fears he may have tried to scale the building himself.
GMP Salford West posted on Facebook: “Call received from a male stating his toy helicopter had landed on the roof of Asda and he wanted the fire brigade and ourselves to retrieve it!
“This might happen on fireman Sam but not in GMP, sorry.”
Police had no contact with the man, who was was advised over the phone to go into the store during opening hours.
Greater Manchester Police report that their call handlers get an average of 1,317 calls a day.
In 2013/14 Greater Manchester Fire dealt with 1,568 malicious or hoax calls, putting already strained services under more pressure.
In 2012 police released details of the kinds of prank calls their emergency handlers have to deal with.
They included a man reporting that someone had “stolen his marmalade”, a second man saying he had seen “a chicken walking down the road” and a woman who called 999 to report that her sister had allowed a stray dog into her home.
