In a bizarre turn of events in Australia, a five-year-old's prank call to the police ended up alerting officers to her mother's stash of 15 cannabis plants.
The young girl from Albion Park Rail, Shellharbour, dialled triple-0 (the Australia emergency number) at 12.10am on Tuesday morning (3 March). It's unclear what she said, but police explained the call sounded serious enough to dispatch officers to her home address.
Lake Illawarra Police District Sergeant Peter Northey told The Illawarra Mercury: "Whatever was said on the phone call was enough to alarm the triple-0 operator, who decided to send police anyway to check on the welfare of the residents.
Advert
"With a call such as this, the triple-0 operators are trained to listen out to the background to try and [determine]: 'is this someone needing help and they just can't talk?' or is it just a prank.
"We've since found they were just making a prank telephone call."
Police arrived at the girl's Elm Street address, but no one answered the door when they arrived. The officers' suspicions were aroused when they noticed a light on in the garage down the side of the house.
Advert
Sergeant Northey continued: "Police have seen... there was a light on in the garage down the side of the house.
"Police have gone down to the garage to check on the welfare of anybody inside. As they've entered the garage they've found a number of cannabis plants."
Officers discovered 15 cannabis plants in a hydroponic set-up, which were seized by police.
Advert
The girl's 30-year-old mother was arrested and is now helping police with their investigation. She is expected to be charged with cultivating a small quantity of a prohibited plant.
Sergeant Northey concluded: "In my 18 years of policing, this is the first time that this sort of circumstance has happened, but we're really grateful that it did happen.
"Drug possession and cultivation is a serious crime. We do encourage any members of the public that may have information of other homes involved in this activity to notify police by phoning Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000."
Featured Image Credit: Lake Illawarra Police DistrictTopics: World News, crime, Cannabis, Marijuana, Drugs, Australia