From reeking rink food to bad boxing: Sask. RCMP reveals 2023’s worst calls

Operators at the Saskatchewan RCMP’s Divisional Operational Communications Centre regularly deal with emergency calls.

Then there are the other 911 calls — the ones that don’t come anywhere close to being an emergency.

Here are 10 calls the RCMP got in 2023 that didn’t reach that standard. They were among the 352,663 calls for service operators took in 2023.

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First up was a person calling to complain that the smell of deep-fried rink food at their local rink was too strong. That was followed on the list by a caller reporting that their grass hadn’t been cut properly by the person they’d hired.

Third was a person calling 911 to say their campsite was being invaded by bugs and they didn’t have any bug spray. No. 4 was a call about a bag of chips being stuck in a vending machine, with the caller hoping an officer could come by to help get the chips unstuck.

The fifth call was from a person who called 911 to get a hair salon’s phone number so they could book a haircut. Sixth on the top 10 was a call from a person who asked if it was OK to park their car on the other side of the street to keep the sun from hitting their leather interior.

The remaining four calls were: A caller saying their smoke detector’s battery was low and asking for an RCMP officer to pick up replacement batteries; a parent complaining that their child wouldn’t clean their room; a person asking for RCMP assistance to get wasps out of their house; and a person saying their friend had hit them in the face during a boxing match.

“As entertaining as some of these calls are, we want to remind everyone that 911 is for emergencies and emergencies only,” Lee Rosin, a recruiter for the Saskatchewan RCMP Operational Communications Centre, said in a release.

“When I’m answering calls that aren’t an emergency, it means I’m not available for someone else who really does need potentially life-saving help.”