Look, people are highly strung about anything that looks like it could be a crime scene. It might not be a case where you need to feverishly call 000, but it’s understandable that when you see something kinda weird, you wanna tell someone about it. Maybe call the local cop shop, or maybe just wait it out for five minutes so you don’t end up looking like a total dickhead because it’s just a sea turtle getting some help from marine experts.
In Mosman, in Sydney‘s Lower North Shore, a spooked local dialled into emergency services last week, claiming that a “hostage situation” was going down. From what they could see, there was a man under a blanket wielding a knife at the driver and a passenger of a van. Sounds pretty serious, fair enough.
It wasn’t until the police cautiously approached the car with sirens blaring and lights blazing that they realised that it wasn’t a hostage scenario at all, it was just a group of marine conservationists and experts rescuing an ill sea turtle from nearby waters.
What the panicked, pearl-clutching local had seen was, in fact, a man in a wetsuit with a diving knife nursing a turtle – who was wrapped in a blanket to keep cool.
A turtle. In a blanket. And someone called 000.
Look, it’s fair enough if you want to alert security at the cinema because you’ve just seen three teens in a trenchcoat trying to get into an R-rated film, but calling in the feds because you’ve somehow mistaken a large aquatic reptile for a man with a knife is…a stretch. Unless you think that turtle belongs in jail for its various oceanic crimes, then alert the authorities, my friend.
If anything, let this be a lesson – please don’t call 000 unless it’s absolutely an emergency. Or maybe just suss out the situation first before you dial it in.
