Hello, 999? My son won't stop playing his Xbox!

A parent called Welsh police because his child wouldn't stop playing his Xbox.

The bizarre phone call was one of a number of times someone rang the emergency services in north Wales in the past 12 months without a genuine emergency and also included one instance when a shopper dialled 999 because they couldn’t access a catalogue company.

One reveller even phoned for help because she had lost one of her stiletto heels.

One man rang police to see if they could contact who met a girl on holiday after losing her phone number.

The force received more than half a million phone calls in the past 12 months but only 225,000 incidents were recorded and just 46,000 were crimes.

Acting Superintendent Alex Goss said: "Each unnecessary call to us reduces time available for calls on genuine policing matters.

"Phoning 999, the emergency line, for trivial matters such as being annoyed with catalogue companies is a complete waste of resources, and could possibly prevent a genuine life or death emergency call being put through."