Women Arrested For Using 911 To Complain About Chinese Food

There have been stories in the past about people using 911 for stupid reasons, and even one story about a woman who used a food order in place of 911. But a woman from Alliance, Ohio, may have taken the cake for most unnecessary 911 call when she phoned the emergency service to complain about the Chinese food she had just ordered.

According to the Huffington Post, 44-year-old Tracey McCloud had purchased Chinese food from a local restaurant called Main Moon Chinese Restaurant on Monday that was apparently not to her liking. After calling the restaurant and being denied a refund, the Alliance woman dialed 911.

WKYC posted the audio clip from the entire 911 call, featuring McCloud confidently complaining about her Chinese food. It’s evident that the woman understood who she was calling and that it was not a wrong number or a mistake.

The 911 operator responds to the call by asking, “Where’s your emergency?… What’s the problem?”

McCloud responds by saying, “I have bought some Chinese food and it’s not to par to me, and I asked to get my money back and they acting like they don’t understand me and took my food and won’t give me my money back.”

The operator hesitates before asking, “And this is why you called 911?”

“Um, what am I supposed to do?” Tracey asked, quickly defensive. “Jump over the thing and beat them up and get my money back?”

“No, you should have called the regular police line instead of calling the life-threatening emergency line,” says the operator.

Before the call ends, Tracey McCloud claims she already called the police, but they transferred her to 911.

You can listen to the hilarious Chinese food phone call in the video below, courtesy of the local Ohio news website.

Since calling to complain about Chinese food is not a real emergency, the woman was later arrested for misuse of 911, which is a misdemeanor crime according to the local police. Tracey McCloud is scheduled to appear in Alliance Municipal Court on July 10.

The police department in Alliance is using the Chinese food 911 call as an opportunity to tell citizens that 911 should be used for emergencies only, since unnecessary calls can delay dispatchers from responding to actual life-threatening emergencies.

Do you think Tracey McCloud should be charged for using 911 simply to complain about Chinese food? What’s the most ridiculous 911 call you’ve ever heard?

[Image courtesy of WKYC. Chinese food image courtesy of eBay]