Is This One of Your Pet Peeves?

If a shootout is taking place, your neighbor is suffering a heart attack, or you see a house burning down, 911 is the number to call.

But what about these so-called "emergencies?":

A Subway sandwich shop in [Jacksonville] Florida leaves the mayo and mustard off a customer’s order, and he loses all semblance of reason.
A Texas man can’t get a cab.
A Tennessee man’s stepfather keeps nagging him to do the laundry.
A caller in Cordova, CA demands to know why the Transportation Department hadn’t mowed the grass.

This MSNBC.com article gives the low-down on abuses of this emergency number, such as this one:

Dispatch: "911."
Caller: "Do the police have a program called scared straight?"
Dispatch: "Scared straight? I've never heard of it."
Caller: "It's like when you take the child and show them where juvenile [hall] is and scare them so they straighten up."
Dispatch: "How old a child is it?"
Caller: "She's 10."