Buffalo on the roof, wife refusing to serve tea: Peculiar complaints flood UP police helpline

“Madam, my buffalo has climbed up my roof. Please help.”

This is what one caller, who had dialled UP100 – the Uttar Pradesh police emergency response centre – said on the phone.

The Uttar Pradesh police are now used to receiving such complaints on a daily basis. The agents, handling the calls, politely suggest ways in which the person concerned can resolve the problem.

“In this case, for instance, the attendant suggested that the person lure the buffalo back to the ground with the help of fodder or vegetables,” said additional director general of police (UP100) Aditya Mishra. They even sent a police response vehicle to the spot to check if the complaint was genuine.

The polite responses by call centre agents as well as police personnel are spurred by a standing instruction that all complainants – no matter how strange their demands – be dealt with in a cordial manner.

“Our staff is trained to differentiate between calls that require action and those that don’t. However, at times we do react on what initially appears to be a trivial issue. This is because big problems can arise from seemingly small ones, and timely counselling can help avert an ugly episode,” explained Mishra.

The list of peculiar calls is, however, long.

A complainant dialled 100 when his wife refused to get him his morning tea. A police team went to the caller’s house and counselled the couple.

In another instance, a husband dialled the emergency number to complain about his wife’s habit of going to bed with the doors open. When the agent suggested that the husband close the doors while his spouse was asleep, he said that he will be scolded by his wife when she wakes up.

On his request, the call attendant talked to the man’s wife and apprised her on the need to avert potential home intrusions.

However, not all problems can be resolved by the police.

A caller who complained about a monkey slapping him on the premises of a temple was politely turned away.

Another request was turned down when a man called to report that his baby was crying continuously in the absence of his mother. The complainant wanted a police team to drop by his house, so they could scare the child to sleep.