KEY POINTS:
A frightened Christchurch woman who called 111 several times after being threatened was texted by Vodafone and told to stop ringing the emergency number.
Marilyn Clemison rang 111 after she was threatened by a person near her home. The first call was just after 5.30pm on September 26, but police did not see Ms Cleminson, who was hiding in a car.
A police officer responded to a second 111 but was diverted to the Stephen Bellingham shooting and Ms Cleminson had to make a third call.
She said she then received a text from Vodafone which said: "This no. has been iDd as making multiple pocket calls 2 111. Pls take steps 2 ensure this stops, such as using ur keypad lock at all times. Thank u."
She was horrified to receive the text telling her to stop calling 111. "How dare they text that? I feel I cannot ring 111 any more," she told The Press.
Vodafone has now apologised for sending the text and admitted it was an error, but could not say how many other similar texts had been sent.
Vodafone spokeswoman Alison Sykora said 111 calls were monitored to reduce accidental or prank calls.
"If we believe that the calls were made in error, we send a message to alert the person."
Suspect 111 calls are not stopped from reaching emergency services.
Inspector Bryan Buck, of the Southern Communications Centre, said the text to Ms Cleminson was not at the police's request.
"I didn't know they did that. Police have nothing to do with that sort of thing."
Police did have a formal arrangement with telecommunications companies in extreme cases, he said.
"Last week someone rang the emergency number 67 times in one evening. In that instance we rang the telecommunications company to immobilise the phone."
A Telecom spokeswoman said they did not have a 111 text-back system for mobile phones.
- NZPA
