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It was the last shift before I was due to go on my holidays. It was also a very hot and sunny day. The last thing that I wanted was any jobs that were going to give me any stress or cause me to break in to a sweat. I was simply intent on winding down in anticipation of my trip to Italy.

Then the first job came down to my screen in the car: ‘Male – Stabbing – please give a report for HEMS’. Oh great – just what I needed! I hurtled down there and arrived at about the same time as an ambulance and the police. We all got out and grouped together before we went in to the house. There was no answer at the front door and the police were weighing up all the options with regard to breaking in to the property when some of the immediate neighbours approached us.

Well, if their stories were to be believed it sounded unnervingly more like an episode of Holby City than downtown suburbia. They told us that one of them had apparently had a heart attack just last week and another had been shot only a few days earlier (although she looked quite well for it), and now a fatal stabbing. I could only guess at what the insurance rates would be in this particular road!

It soon became clear to us all that this was nothing more than a hoax call. Thankfully, no one had actually been stabbed, shot or had a heart attack and in fact it was all down to a single caller who had nothing better to do with their day but waste the time of the emergency services.