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1 Aug, 2015 21:10

'Don’t call police over ugly Christmas sweater': Swedish Interior Ministry wants no more silliness

'Don’t call police over ugly Christmas sweater': Swedish Interior Ministry wants no more silliness

Sweden’s Interior Ministry has urged persistent callers not to report to law enforcement on such trivial matters as getting the wrong Christmas present or seeing an eagle abuse a rabbit.

“You should not notify the police if an eagle has abused a rabbit or even that a shower jet is too hard or that you have received an ugly sweater for Christmas,” Interior Minister Anders Ygeman told local TT news agency this week.

“If you receive an ugly sweater from your mother for Christmas, you should take it up with her and not with the police.”

Local law enforcement officials have also received a lot of reports regarding lost car keys, because insurance companies require that such matters be reported to the police in order for the claimant to receive compensation, Stefan Marcopoulos, a spokesperson for the police, told The Local.se.

“If it’s obvious that it [the call] doesn’t concern a crime, then we drop it more or less immediately."

Dealing with such silly complaints forces Police to take measures that cut their resources and prevent them from focusing on solving crimes, Ygeman said.

Sweden is not the only country where police receive trivial calls with complaints sounding completely ridiculous. According to the examiner.com website, a man in Britain recently called the emergency service after his girlfriend let their cat eat his bacon, demanding both “criminals” be arrested.

READ MORE: Paranormal activity: Police force gets 71 ghost busting calls in three years

Reports of paranormal activity have also been filed with British police. According to figures released following a Freedom of Information (FOI) request in 2014, there have been 71 reports of zombies, witches and ghosts called into to the West Midlands Police over the past three years.

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