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From rotten avocados to a smelly neighbour: E-Comm releases top 10 unusual calls to 911

While the 2024 list is mostly comical, it also serves to raises awareness around the appropriate use of the 911 emergency line.

Annual list highlights reasons not to call the 911 emergency line

CBC News ·
A woman points to a screen showing downtown Vancouver, with a series of coloured icons and car icons visible.
E-Comm handles about two million calls per year. The service, which deals with emergency calls for the Lower Mainland, has released the annual list of its most unusual emergency calls. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

Complaints about rotten produce and cologne overuse highlight the list of E-Comm's most unusual and inappropriate 911 calls of 2024. 

A call about a dry cleaner and another complaining about an unopened McDonald's also made the annual ranking released by British Columbia's emergency call service of the "top ten reasons NOT to call 911." 

Although the annual list is mostly comical, it also serves a purpose: raising awareness around the appropriate use of the line, which should be reserved for reporting in-progress crimes or emergencies requiring immediate attention from police, fire or ambulance services.

E-Comm's 2024 Top 10 List of Calls that did not belong on 911 

  1. Neighbour wearing too much cologne.
  2. Dry cleaners stained a shirt.
  3. McDonald's wouldn't open its doors.
  4. Seeking directions to a 24/7 Shoppers Drug Mart.
  5. Complaining the power was out.
  6. Requesting technical support.
  7. Box of 38 avocados purchased were rotten.
  8. Phone left in an Uber.
  9. Requesting help removing a wasp's nest.
  10. Domesticated-looking bunny seen in park.

A spokesperson for E-Comm said each second spent responding to a call that does not belong on 911 is time that could be spent helping someone in a life-threatening emergency. 

The agency handles approximately two million 911 calls per year.

E-Comm said most people who use the line do so responsibly. The service covers the Lower Mainland and southern Vancouver Island.

A woman with black hair sits at a computer desk, with a headset on.
Laura Fiddler, an emergency call taker at E-Comm is pictured in Vancouver on Monday. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

Laura Fiddler, an emergency call taker, told CBC News on Monday that she had to deal with an irate caller who complained that a McDonald's wasn't open at 5 a.m. one morning.

She said that a lot of her day was spent dealing with people who accidentally pocket-dialled 911 or did so through a smartwatch.

"The biggest message [is] that if somebody is accidentally calling into 911, and they noticed, just to stay on the line with us," she said. "An emergency police call taker will make sure that they're safe, and then we can disconnect the call."

A person walks onto a mat with the words, 'E-Comm 91: Helping to save lives and protect property.'
E-Comm co-ordinates emergency responses for numerous agencies, including ambulance, police and fire. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

With files from Jon Hernandez

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