Police shocked by snowman theft call

A woman has been dubbed "completely irresponsible" after making an emergency call to police to report the theft of her snowman.

In a recording of her phone call, the woman, from Chatham in southeast England, is heard telling an operator that the theft required police involvement because she used coins for eyes and teaspoons for arms.

"I haven't been out to check on him for five hours but I went outside for a fag (cigarette) and he's gone," the woman is heard saying.

"It ain't a nice road but you don't expect someone to nick your snowman."
The call was made at the same time as emergency operators fielded thousands of other calls about the heavy snow storms and freezing temperatures afflicting the country.

The operator at first seemed to think the woman was reporting a missing person and the caller had to explain that she was talking about a snowman.

"I thought that with it being icy and there not being anybody about, he'd be safe," she said.
When the operator asked if it was some kind of ornament that had been stolen, the woman said: "No, a snowman made of snow, I made him myself."

The operator then said she should not be phoning an emergency line for such a trivial thing.
"It was completely irresponsible," Kent chief inspector Simon Black told the BBC.

"This call could have cost someone's life if there was a genuine emergency and they couldn't get through.

ninemsn.com.au 4 Dec 2010

A clear indication that some people are such a burden on society, that maybe they should not have been born.