Police are warning people to be responsible when calling 999 this Christmas after a caller complained: 'I'm still waiting for my food and I've not been given my order.'
Nottinghamshire Police said its control room handles thousands of 999 emergency calls each month.
They said that while the majority are made to request police support in genuine emergencies, there are still a "number of spurious and misplaced calls" which delay them from dealing with the most urgent calls.
Superintendent Paul Burrows, from the police control room, said: "The vast majority of the public understand that 999 is only for emergency calls but, despite the work we regularly do to explain to people how to use 999 responsibly, we do still receive a high number of misplaced calls to our emergency number.
"While some of the misplaced calls we receive range from honest errors of judgement to the more unusual, there is a serious point to be made here as every misplaced call our emergency call handlers receive has the potential to delay us from responding to genuine emergencies.
"All we’re asking is that people only call 999 in genuine emergencies and remember that there are other ways to contact us for less urgent enquiries.
"Please think before dialling and only call 999 when life is in danger, someone is seriously injured, someone is using or threatening to use violence, a crime is in progress, there is serious damage being caused to property or whenever else an immediate police response is required.
"For all other non-emergency policing matters, please call 101."
