[Carruthers]

British woman accidentally dials Massachusetts police to report crash in England

A British woman trying to report a car crash to police mistakenly dialed authorities in Barnstable, Massachusetts, instead of police Barnstaple, England.

The call went on for more than two minutes before the dispatcher and caller realized they were in different countries, according to audio of the call.

The woman called to report a car crash on Muddiford Road on Thursday, and struggled to describe the area to the confused police officer.

A British woman trying to report a car crash to police mistakenly dialed authorities in Barnstable, Massachusetts, instead of police Barnstaple, England.

The call went on for more than two minutes before the dispatcher and caller realized they were in different countries, according to audio of the call.

The woman called to report a car crash on Muddiford Road on Thursday, and struggled to describe the area to the confused police officer.

Barnstable Police Officer Mark McWilliams said he didn't know the area the woman was talking about, and suddenly they realized the error.

The caller laughed and said, "you can't help me then."

McWilliams joked back, saying "Yeah, our response is going to be about six hours."

It was not immediately clear if Barnstaple police responded to the crash the woman called about.

Audio of the call + article here: Masslive.

Since this report surfaced over here, more information has emerged which rather dilutes the weirdness factor:

"My friends asked Cortana and the phone number came up so I pressed it and that's how I was speaking to police in Massachusetts."

Barnstable, Massachusetts is twinned with the north Devon town.

BBC Report