A mum-of-three who sells dolls has been forced to put up signs in her home window urging people not to ‘panic’ after police broke in thinking one was a real baby.
Ava Prior, who paints ultra-realistic ‘reborn’ dolls as a hobby and sells them, says officers mistook one for an ‘abandoned’ child.
Officers smashed the door down to rescue it, causing more than £400 worth of damage.
The seller said: ‘It wasn’t hilarious at the time but I can see the funny side now.
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In December Ava, from Malvern in Worcestershire, put the finishing touches on a doll, dressed it in a snowsuit and put it in a carrycot so she could take photos to sell it online.
After taking a few photos of the realistic baby, which sell for up to £180 per doll, she left the carrycot on the floor, turned the light off and headed to her friend’s with her youngest son for a catch up.
At the same time Ava’s mum, who she speaks to regularly, couldn’t get through to her daughter as her phone was switched off and charging.
Worried, her mum called the police, who immediately went round to her house, and this is when the mix-up with the doll happened.
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In a bid to prevent anything similar happening again, Ava made stickers for her windows that read: ‘Reborn dolls on premises. NO babies are alone in the house – please do NOT panic or break doors/window. Many thanks :)’.
Is it relatively common to call the police if someone doesn’t answer their phone in europe? I’m in the US and would maybe do that if I couldn’t get in contact with a family member after a solid week of trying but this sounds like she just tried to ring her daughter then called the police whwn she didn’t pick up
French here, for just an afternoon of not answering (and I’m being generous, might be even less, reading the article), this is very much considered insane here and this mom has issues.
I mean, if the mom lived on the same block or something, or if she needed something urgent, went to her daughter’s and then saw the doll through the window, there are quite a few scenarios where one wouldn’t think the mom has issues.
Or it could all have been a ruse for publicity.
I can only speak for the UK, but yes, very common.
Most people are sensible and take that line of approach, weighing up the risk factors that may mean that someone has come to harm, then visiting them themselves, and calling the police service if they have no other alternative.
Others phone the polis if they can’t be fucking arsed to find out for themselves and throw in some magic circumstances like “oh he’s got poor mental health” or “oh she said she’s had an argument in work and she’s feeling low” which ties the cops hands and prompts a response, or they’ll phone because they “haven’t answered their WhatsApp/SnapChat/Instagram message and that’s super rare” rather than getting up and checking on their welfare themselves.
I’ve worked beside with forces across the country - these types of calls take up a disproportionate amount of resources (not just police, but ambulance and fire too), and police aren’t the best people to deal with concern calls - they just happen to be a 24hr pool of people available to go places.
It’s ludicrous - perhaps only really sorted with more fully funded mental health preventative treatment, and more crisis teams to deal with the genuine mental health calls more effectively.
In the US you don’t call the fucking cops unless you are okay with the possibility of someone being murdered over whatever your issue is. Or just because. And their dog too.
Here in the UK, there might be some property damage or a stern talking too.
Although there was that time the police shit an Irishman who had a table leg in a bag (someone saw it in the pub and phoned the emergency services) or the time they tazed a blind man for carrying a samurai sword (it was his stick). I knew a guy in armed response who once dropped his gun and shot a cow.
See a previous article on this - people will phone the emergency services for the stupidest of reasons, so it’s disappointingly common.