Peel Regional Police are reminding people that an incorrect restaurant order is not worth a 911 call.
The reminder comes after a customer called 911 to complain about a restaurant putting tomatoes on his sandwich, when he had asked them not to.
The tweet also included a voice clip of the 911 call, in which the customer requests that the operator send help to Queen Street.
“Police, Police. I just want to talk to someone because I’ve been threatened by an owner,” the caller said.
When the 9-1-1 operator asks what the owner said, the customer says “I ordered a chicken sandwich and basically the owner, I told him right before I ordered I can’t eat tomatoes, because I’m allergic.”
The dispatcher then interrupts the caller and tells him that he should not have called 911.
“Please don’t call 9-1-1 in the future for fried chicken mishaps,” she said.
Speaking to CTV News Toronto, Peel Region 911 Dispatcher Matt Correia warned that these calls could get in the way of reporting actual emergencies.
"It’s just important when calling 911 to make sure: Do I have an actual life-threatening emergency? Is my life on the line here? And if so, then yes, absolutely give us a call, but unfortunately we’re getting tied up with non-emergency situations."
"What people don’t realize is while these people are on the phone and we’re trying to deal with them, there’s other calls that are waiting that could be a car accident, a shooting, a stabbing."
With files from CTV News Toronto's Natalie Johnson.
