October 29, 2011 - The Telegraph

Hertfordshire Police have released the audio of a male 999 caller reporting a bright UFO "coming towards him" in his back garden, only to ring back minutes later to declare that its presence was in fact entirely explainable.

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The caller told police that he had seen a UFO with "big bright lights" hovering in his back garden.

Taking the call seriously the female operator can be heard logging the bizarre information before asking if the UFO was making any "engine noise".

The caller replied that it was not, telling her: "I thought it was an aeroplane at first and then its just hovering with all these lights on."

After being told local authorities would investigate his claims, the caller hung up, only to ring back minutes later to confess that he had made an embarrassing mistake.

When asked by the call handler what he had seen, the man replied sheepishly: "You're not going to believe this, you're not going to believe it, it's the moon."

Refusing to see the humor, Jason Baxter, assistant manager at the force communications room, said: 'While the caller here may not have been phoning out of malice, his call still tied up valuable police resources and time for something which was not an emergency.

"It also illustrates the kind of bogus call we might receive to 999, whether as a hoax or an inappropriate call."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/8854717/999-caller-mistakes-moon-for-UFO.html

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