10 most ridiculous requests for help

SEOUL—An emergency call center in South Korea on Tuesday released a list of the most ridiculous requests for help it had received, including one that concerned a particularly large cockroach.

Staff at the call and dispatch center in western city of Incheon, which handled around a million phone calls last year, voted for the 10 most inappropriate requests for assistance made to emergency services.

“We’ve got a roach here … a real big one. Please take care of it!” was one caller’s urgent predicament.

Other callers had an array of bizarre “emergency” requests ranging from needing help obtaining the phone number of a popular movie star to a plea for assistance hailing a taxi in the rain.

One female caller asked for guidance about how to make her ex-boyfriend come back to her.

Another caller informed emergency services he had lost his mobile phone “somewhere on the mountain” and required help locating it.

An 85-year-old man rang the 119 number—South Korea’s equivalent of 911—after his children chastised him for having a romantic affair in his twilight years.

An official at the call center told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that emergency workers could only be dispatched to actual crisis situations.

“A cockroach, no matter how big it may be, does not make the cut,” the official added.

The head of the Incheon emergency call center, Kim Joon-tae, said the vital 119 phone line must be used only for actual crisis situations—not frivolous calls.

“We really have to focus on emergencies,” he said, adding the center plans to launch a publicity campaign to reduce time-wasting requests this month. AFP