Police sent out squad cars with blue lights and sirens on after receiving 21 silent 999 calls from a house in Cambridgeshire, only to discover a man had dialled the emergency number while trying to unlock his phone.
The unnamed resident dialled multiple times after reading online that dialling 999 could let a user into their locked device.
Officers had first tried to call the number and sent a text message, but got no response. So officers raced to the address in Wisbech in the Fenland area on Thursday night.
A Cambridgeshire Police spokesperson said: “In fact the person was trying to unlock their phone as it’s stated online that if your mobile phone is locked that calling 999 would unblock/unlock it.
“We can safely say this is not true.”
“We do investigate every silent 999 call to ensure someone is not in trouble. However, 999 should only be used in a genuine emergency and not to unlock a mobile phone.”
Cambridgeshire Police said no further action had been taken against the caller.
Last week a woman in Leicestershire was fined for making 200 hoax 999 calls between Christmas and New Year.
Victoria Cross said she was “bored and didn’t care about anyone else”.
Additional reporting by PA
