London Fire Brigade has launched a festive campaign to tackle time-wasters after revealing it has received 8,600 hoax calls in the past five years.
The force also picked up the phone on 187,000 false alarms, 2,800 animal rescues and 1,500 people stuck in everyday objects such as chairs and toilets.
They include a woman who asked the brigade to warm her baby’s milk for her, a goose trapped on a roof and a kitten with its head stuck in a bongo drum.
The brigade will be tweeting out some of the funniest - and most bizarre - requests they have received using the hashtag #12DaysXmas.
The LFB’s director of operations, Dave Brown said: "It's a bit of festive fun, but the message is serious – don’t call 999 unless it's a genuine emergency.
"You wouldn't believe some of the incidents crews are called out to.
"We are regularly called to deal with a lot of incidents which could be avoided. We want everyone to have a good Christmas, but remember that silly pranks and time-wasting calls cost us time, money and resources."
