THAMES Valley Police has given an insight into the workings of its emergency control centre - and the time-wasters they deal with.

Last night, TVP held a Twitter 'takeover' from their contact management centres and shone a light on the sheer volume of calls they deal with.

Between 5pm and 9pm last night, the force received 256 calls to 999 and 494 to the non-emergency 101 line.

But not all of them were serious. 

Time-wasting calls flagged up by officers (some from last night) include.

  • Someone concerned their neighbour's cat was on their window ledge
  • A recording of a call from a man complaining someone had 'taken his pizza' - before thankfully being reunited with his dinner.
  • Someone 'stuck in the toilet'.
  • A report of a duck stuck in a hedge
  • A call from a drunk man who dialled 999 and wanted the police to take him home.

Using the hashtag #thinkbeforeyoudial, TVP revealed that they receive approximately 364,000 999 calls per year.

However, they say 80 per cent of those calls are inappropriate.