Stupidest Reasons People Called 911

In the United States, 911 operators receive up to 500 calls a day. Some are genuine emergencies. But a shocking number of people call for the dumbest reasons you could possibly imagine. Whether it’s over cold fast food or really needing to go pee, here are some of the stupidest reasons people have called 911.

Permit Patty

Some people can find the pettiest reasons to call the police. But you’ll struggle to find someone pettier than this woman.

In the now viral clip, Alison Ettel can be seen reporting the heinous crime of an 8-year-old girl selling bottles of water without a permit. Shock horror! The video was taken by the girl’s older cousin and quickly went viral, causing a mass backlash against Alison, who the internet damningly dubbed “Permit Patty”.

And with this sudden surge in attention it wasn’t long before Alison’s identity was made public. Several businesses she’d been set to work with cut ties with her, and her reputation took a major hit as people accused her actions of being racially motivated. Alison denied this, and even said in a later interview that she hadn’t phoned the police at all, only pretended to.

Even if true, it doesn’t make her any less of a horrible person. As for the little girl, it turns out she was selling the water to help save up money for a trip to Disneyland. After the video went viral, one kind citizen decided to buy 4 tickets for her and her family! At least something good came from this mess.

Murder Suspect Calls 911 Over McDonald's Fries

Don’t you just hate it when you’re leaving your local fast-food joint only to discover that the food you just paid for is ice cold? Do you hate it so much you’d call the police over it though? Then 24-year-old Antoine Sims clearly does. In August 2022, he called 911 after getting into an altercation with staff over being served cold fries.

Police arrived at what they assumed to be an overblown customer service dispute, interviewed Antoine and the restaurant owner, and returned to their squad car. So far, so standard. But after searching Antoine’s name in the police database, they made a shocking discovery.

It turns out our dissatisfied customer had a warrant out for his arrest, and this was no minor crime. It related to a homicide case from back in 2018! And he called the cops over some cold fries! How stupid can you get?

After quickly gathering himself, the officer returned to the restaurant to question Antoine further. But the wanted criminal started to suspect something. As he was handed some documents to sign, he suddenly bolted for it! But it wasn’t gonna be that easy. The police gave chase and after utilizing a taser Antoine was quickly caught and arrested. Mr. Sims was charged but the details of his trial are currently unknown. What we do know is he’s definitely not lovin’ it.

Woman Calls 911 For "Cutie" Cop

They say love makes people do stupid things. That’s definitely the case for this caller who decided she’d try using 911 as her own form of speed dating.

Earlier that day, a Washington County deputy had arrived at Lorna Jeanne Dudash’s house after her neighbor made a noise complaint. It was a short interaction, a simple knock on the door and a warning to keep it down. But despite the wholly unromantic nature of the exchange, something clearly stirred within Lorna. After he left, she waited until she was sure he was back at the station, and then, consumed by the throes of passion, dialed 911.

You’ve got to give her some credit for the brutal honesty. And in one sense, it worked! The deputy she had her eyes on did return. Only, it wasn’t with flowers and chocolate, it was with handcuffs. Dudash was arrested for misuse of the 911 dispatch line, by the very cop she’d fallen for. An offense punishable by a fine of potentially thousands of dollars and even a possible year of jail time. Talk about a romantic tragedy.

Teen Pocket Dials Cops While Playing Shooting Games

Is there anything more relaxing than kicking back and playing video games with your friends? Well, you might feel different if you knew it could end with a real gun being pointed in your face. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened to 17-year-old Elijah Sierocki in 2023.

During a heated match in the First Person Shooter, Rainbow 6 Siege, Elijah unknowingly butt dialed 911. Not the worst thing in the world, but things got really bad when the Operator heard what Elijah was saying to his teammates over headset.

Police don’t take potential double homicides lightly. Kentucky officers raced to Elijah’s house ready for what they assumed would be a deadly confrontation. Instead, they found the teen walking out, phone in hand, desperately trying to explain the misunderstanding.

Unsure what to believe, officers patted him down and went inside the house to check it was clear. Sure enough though, all they found was a sick gaming setup. We're cutting the kid some slack for this one, but next time, we hope he’ll be leaving his phone on the table while he games.

YouTuber Prank Calling Cops

YouTube pranksters, you'll struggle to find a single one that’s actually funny and not a total douchebag. Known for posting all kinds of outrageous content to his 3 million subscribers, Jason Cid, AKA, King Cid is no stranger to controversy. But in January 2022, he uploaded his stupidest video yet. From a gas station, Jason and his friends call 911 to report supposed suspicious activity:

Coke Prank On Aggressive Cops! by King Cid

Then, Cid and co sat back in their car and waited with hidden cameras to film everything that went down. Sure enough, cops arrived at the scene, and before long they started questioning the YouTubers. All 3 passengers gave intentionally suspicious answers, prompting the officers to force them out of the vehicle while they searched it. But instead of finding anything illegal, the police discovered a bunch of cans of Coca Cola.

The 3 young men were let go, but a month later the Coral Springs Police Department charged Cid with misuse of 911. Four officers had responded that day and wasted over 45 minutes on the fake call, during which time several real emergencies were held up. It'd be great to say Jason’s content has improved since the incident, but that would be a lie.

Drunk Driver Calls Cops On Himself

A man was driving down a Nebraska highway back in March 2023 when suddenly a car came speeding towards him on the wrong side of the road. Panicking, the man barely swerved out of the way, then made a phone call.

Drunk driver calls police on himself after speeding on wrong side of highway by The Independent

The police jumped into action and headed onto the highway to look for the lunatic. Meanwhile, our man continued chatting with officers about the near death experience he’d just had. But then something completely unexpected happened. The man who’d made the call saw flashing lights behind him and realized he was getting pulled over! What kind of injustice was this? He pulled to a stop and an officer opened his door.

It turns out, the other car he’d seen hadn’t been driving on the wrong side of the road at all, it had been him the whole time! After doing a breathalyzer, police discovered he was over twice the legal limit. So, this nincompoop not only got so drunk he didn’t know which side of the road he was on, he also called the cops on himself. Can you get any more braindead?

Kid Calls 911 For Help With Homework

People in trouble might use codewords over the phone to try and communicate they need help without alerting anyone around them. No doubt that’s what this operator was thinking when he received a call from what sounded like a small child.

The operator does a good job of keeping the kid on the line while trying to get as much information as possible from him. As the call continues, however, the operator begins to realize that in this case, there are no codewords.

The child really called the cops just for help with his math homework. You can’t go too hard on him for this, he was only 4! Something tells you the mother learned a valuable lesson about leaving her kid alone with the phone though.

Paranoid Dealers Get High And Call 911

Being a criminal isn’t easy, always looking behind your back, constantly on the alert, knowing that at any moment the police might pop out of nowhere. It seems that for these next two wannabe criminals, the stress was just too much and they had to call the men in blue.

Admitted drug dealers get high and call the Idaho cops by East Idaho News

Leland Ayala-Doliente and Holland Sward turned themselves in for transporting 20 pounds of Jazz Cabbage from Las Vegas to Idaho. Only, the cops weren’t actually onto them! The pair had clearly got high on their own supply and become so paranoid they just thought they’d been found out!

When police arrived both men already had their hands behind their heads and turned themselves in without struggle. Sward was sentenced to 5 years’ probation and 30 days in prison while Ayala-Doliente was sentenced to 8 years in prison. His sentence was increased from just 1.5 years because, lo and behold, he tested positive for illicit substances the day of his sentencing. What a doofus!

Woman Calls Police Over Stolen Snowman

We’ve all heard about kids stealing nicknacks from people’s yards. But you’re not gonna believe what this British woman called emergency services to report stolen: a snowman! Did she not think that it might’ve just melted? If this isn’t a joke then we really have no words. What a complete waste of police time.

Woman calls police on 999 over stolen snowman by newslitetv

Swatting Hoax Calls

Unfortunately, not everyone calls the police with good intentions, something 21-year-old Ashton Connor Garcia knows all too well.

From June 2022 to March 2023, Garcia was a regular user of an online message board centered around making fake emergency calls. Not only this, but he’d regularly livestream himself making these hoax calls using online platforms like Discord.

'Cyber terrorist' who reported fake 911 calls across US and Canada sentenced to prison by KOMO News

What a horrible thing to joke about. But this is just one of dozens of hoax calls Garcia made across the US and Canada, the majority being of a similarly violent nature. The calls were intended to produce an immediate response from police, who’d arrive at the locations Garcia told them only to find innocent and confused families greeting them with no knowledge of any call.

Garcia would even taunt dispatch officers after the hoax had been discovered, all for the entertainment of his viewers. Ironically, it would be some of these same viewers who eventually got him caught, after an anonymous tip directed the FBI towards Garcia’s Discord.

'Cyber terrorist' who reported fake 911 calls across US and Canada sentenced to prison by KOMO News

The conniving caller was arrested in March 2023 and sentenced to 3 years in prison for federal charges of extortion and harassment. Considering the sheer fear he’s responsible for and all the police time he’s wasted, 3 years isn’t nearly enough. Let’s just hope this serves as a valuable lesson to him anyway.

Calling The Cops Over Cranberry Sauce

The holiday season can be a stressful time of year for many reasons, and that goes doubly for 911 Operators. One dispatcher recalled the time a woman had called at 6:30 on Christmas morning.

She’d spoken in a breathless, panicked voice asking for help, and the dispatcher had tried their best to calm the woman down and find out what the emergency was. That’s when they were told the woman didn’t know how to get the cranberry sauce out of the can without it coming out in chunks! Of course, what an emergency. What is wrong with people?

Ever helpful, the officer told her to try opening it from the other end and sliding it out onto a plate. And while this solved her cranberry sauce emergency, a significantly more serious one began when an officer arrived at her door later to educate her on the real use for 911.

999 Caller Mistakes Moon For UFO

Have you ever seen something unexplainable floating in the night sky? Something that makes you question if we’re really alone in the universe? If so, you might understand how this man from Hertfordshire, England felt when he called the emergency line to report what sounds eerily like an extra-terrestrial sighting.

He reported a big, strange, hovering craft in the sky. That’s super weird. What could it have been? The dispatch officer said she’ll make a note of the report and ended the call. If the story had ended there this would’ve remained just another unsolved alien sighting. But things took an unexpected turn when the man called again, this time with a shocking admission.

999 caller mistakes moon for UFO by The Telegraph

How does that even happen? Everyone’s seen the damn moon enough times to know it’s not an alien.

Get Off My Lawn

During a reddit Ask Me Anything, one former police officer recalled a particularly aggravating dispatch call they’d had. Responding to a man who claimed a person had been trespassing on his property, the officer arrived at his house. When asked for further details however, the caller, a 50-something former elementary school principle, revealed that this supposed intruder was just his neighbor's 3 year old child!

The kid had been playing on his front lawn, and in response, the former principle demanded they be “punished to the fullest extent of the law”. Unsurprisingly, the officer refused to take action. Old Principal Buzzkill was irate by this and filed a formal complaint about the cop, but it was quickly dismissed. You'd hate to imagine what studying at that principal’s school would’ve been like.

Woman Fakes 911 Hostage Call To Escape McDonald's Job Interview

On the 7th of April 2023, in Macon Georgia, a 911 operator received a terrifying call. A woman was hiding inside a McDonalds’s bathroom claiming that a man was holding 5 people at gunpoint. With no time to lose, two deputies were dispatched and arrived at the scene just a couple of minutes later. Only, there didn’t seem to actually be a scene.

The Officers quizzed staff about a potential gunman but nobody had any clue what they were talking about! Clearly, some prankster thought it would be funny to report a fake emergency to the police. But why at a random McDonalds? Unless the call was coming from inside the restaurant!

Police conducted an investigation and soon found 18 year old Tiara Everett, who’d arrived for an interview earlier that day and was acting suspicious. Police obtained her phone and determined that the 911 call had been made from it just a few minutes earlier.

So, what gives? It looks like Tiara had been pressured into getting a job by her parents but, rather than actually try for it, had made up a story about a gunman to escape her interview. Can you get any lazier? And stupider? Rather than leaving with a job, the teen left in handcuffs and was later charged with false reporting of a crime and unlawful conduct.

Ontario Man Calls 911 Because He's Stuck In Traffic And Has To Pee

There’s nothing more stressful than when nature calls at the worst time. But the last thing you should do is call the police. Well, one guy from Ontario was stuck in traffic when he thought this was exactly the right course of action.

What did he expect the response to be? Did he seriously think the police would send a couple of squad cars and make a path for him to the nearest bathroom? Maybe in the future they could introduce a special lane for this kind of situation. We can only hope our desperate urinator found a bottle in his car.

Drunk University Boss Calls 911 Because She Needs To Pee

If you thought you’d seen enough pee-related fiascos, think again. Dr. Ellen Glickman, Director at Kent University, got herself in a lot of trouble after she called the police at 10:30pm requesting assistance with entering her own university.

Entitled Drunk Kent State University Director Calls 911 Because She Is About To Pee Herself by The BodyCam Zone

She sounds like a really nice, not entitled at all woman, doesn’t she? Well, officers arrived outside the university and spoke with the Director. Glickman explained that she’d just come from a school commencement ceremony and couldn’t seem to get into the university bathroom despite having the master key.

But while she was talking, the officers smelled alcohol on her. This combined with her seeming inability to use the keycard system made them suspicious of Glickman’s ability to drive herself home safely. So, they requested she call someone to pick her up, an idea which clearly did not sit well with her.

Throughout the whole interaction Glickman was rude with the officers and outright refused to organize alternative transportation. According to her, owning a Tesla meant she was fine to drive under the influence. “Insufferable” doesn’t seem a harsh enough word.

Eventually, the officers arrested Glickman and the uptight director was taken to the station and charged with disorderly conduct by intoxication. Fortunately for her, the charges were later dropped, but she was forced to complete 10 hours of community service. I’d have loved to see how entitled she looked while picking up litter.

911 Call Over An Ice Cream With A Fly In

We all love ice cream. The sound of the truck tinkling down the road is a core childhood memory for most of us. But this next ice cream enjoyer was very disappointed with his purchase, so he did the only logical thing. Called the cops.

999 Police Inappropriate Call - Ice Cream With a Fly In by hertspolice

A dead fly and questionable chip distribution! This guy has a point, right? No. No of course he doesn’t. For one, the fly probably flew into his ice cream after it was served to him. Then again, there’s no point applying logic to this, it’s clearly something the caller has no grasp on.

"I'm Locked In My Car" 911 Call

We've learned a lot of super stupid reasons to call the cops. But being locked inside your overheating car can’t be one of them, right? This Orlando woman thought so back in 2009. Stressful stuff! That is until the Dispatch officer suggests doing what most of us would’ve considered long before dialing 911. Please use at least a few brain cells before defaulting to the emergency services people!

Dumb Lady - "I'm Locked in my Car" 911 call Orlando, FL by krymz

Florida Man Arrested After He Lassos Alligator

Robert Colin reached the hallowed halls of iconic Florida man status when he caught a wild alligator using nothing but a nylon rope. The 71-year-old called 911 shortly after ensnaring the fully grown gator outside a canal and tying it to a nearby handrail. But why did he catch the dangerous animal in the first place?

When the police arrived Colin explained to them that he often visited the canal to feed the turtles, a wholesome pastime he claimed was therapy for his heart condition. Apparently though, over the last three years the gator in question had started eating the turtles. After Animal Control had failed to take action, Colin decided it was time to take things into his own hands and lassoed the reptile.

Instead of being celebrated for his actions however, Colin was immediately arrested and charged with injuring the gator, which sadly had to be euthanized. Even if you're not the biggest alligator fan, knowing one died because of somebody’s stupidity makes our blood boil.

Woman Calls Cops On Black Men For Shovelling Snow

You should never underestimate people’s potential for ignorance. Take this elderly Illinois woman, who threatened to call the cops after she spotted 2 men shoveling snow off the sidewalk outside her house.

It should be common knowledge that the sidewalk is public property, and shoveling snow for other people is generally seen as a kindness. For some reason though, this woman was incensed by the helpful duo, and even started shoveling the snow back onto part of the sidewalk. The police did arrive, but after the situation was explained to them, they rightfully made no charges. The woman should’ve been charged for wasting police time and being a terrible person.

Florida Man Calls 911 On Cops Who Pulled Him Over

The average police officer deals with hundreds of traffic stops throughout their career. But few are as exhausting as this encounter with a man who was pulled over in Florida back in March 2021. Initially pulled over for a busted taillight, officers soon discovered that the driver didn’t have the paperwork for the truck and that the registration had expired ten years ago.

Pretty fishy. But it was about to get a whole lot worse. Under Florida law it’s a criminal offence to drive a vehicle with expired registration. As such the police were within their rights to impound the vehicle. Despite the weakness of his case, the driver seemed determined to fight with the officers throughout every step of the process.

Where this guy makes his biggest mistake, however, is in refusing to sign the criminal citation for the vehicle, an arrestable offence. Then, the moment you’ve been waiting for, he calls the cops, on themselves! Which shockingly backfires when they decide to take action.

Guy Calls 911 on Cops Who Pulled Him Over by Active Police Cam

After being arrested and charged, The man pled guilty to not having insurance and was forced to pay $353 in fines on top of any accrued towing fees. All other charges including misuse of 911 were dropped. Seems he got away lucky, and without having an aneurysm. Impressive.

I hope you were amazed at the stupidest reasons people called 911! Thanks for reading.