Boxing day shoppers call 911 to report traffic problems.
The day after Christmas, known as Boxing Day in many parts of the world is a popular time for shopping. That also means lots of traffic.
Well drivers in Burnaby, Vancouver bombarded 911 operators with calls, complaining about the abundance of cars in parking lots and streets. According to a police official, calls began coming in around noon and continued into the evening.
The amount of calls got to be so high that a Burnaby police staff sergeant sent out a Twitter post, asking drivers to stop calling emergency operators for traffic issues.
A staff sergeant stated “You can imagine that when you do receive those 911 calls, they tie up the lines and prevent people from what could be legitimate 911 calls. There’s only a limited number of lines.” Impatient, presumably angry drivers were forced to wait it out.
Earlier this year, unnecessary phone calls to 911 landed a Georgia woman in jail. Tonya Fowler saw her own mugshot from a prior arrest appear in a publication of 'Bad and Busted' and called 911 to convey her displeasure with the photo.
Fowler was arrested and charged with unlawful use of 911, allowing her to get another chance for a more flattering picture.
