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A traumatised home-invasion victim says the 111 system failed around 15 times as he tried to get help after armed intruders burst into his house.
Businessman Arthur Gundy, 62, said he stood in his underwear with duct tape hanging from his wrists, repeatedly trying to get through to police for help.
After 15 calls and 20 minutes, he said he had still not been connected through the 111 automated operator service.
Police were last night investigating why Gundy, from Auckland's West Harbour, could not get help through the 111 system after two armed intruders burst into his home at 5am on Friday.
One of the offenders had a shotgun, the other an axe. Gundy said he was dragged from his bed and bound with duct tape in the garage, before the intruders made off with his ute, and the money from his wallet. "I was waiting for the bonk on the head," he said last night.
After the offenders escaped in his ute he wriggled free and hurried upstairs to call police.
Gundy said he rang three or four times and each time an automated voice asked "fire, ambulance or police". He said he responded "police" each time, and was then told to press any digit to be connected.
But when he did that, he got a disconnected line.
"It was bloody frustrating," Gundy said. He still had bruises on his wrists from the binds and a cut beside his right eye.
A friend of Gundy's, who wanted to be known only as Jim, said he had been sleeping in a room downstairs at the time of the break-in. "I just laid low until I heard Arthur's ute getting backed out the driveway," he said.
Gundy tried two different phones, called three or four times and looked for the Henderson Police Station in the phone book, before passing the phone to Jim to try.
The pair estimated they made 15 calls before they eventually gave up and called Gundy's security company instead.
The company contacted police with no problems but an ambulance was the first emergency service to arrive.
Gundy made a statement to police on Friday about the problems he had. Police told him they were "very concerned" and would investigate.
Gundy, director of a construction company, thought they knew who he was before breaking in.
"They made statements like, 'where's your money... where's your safe, we know you've got a safe'."
Police found his ute late on Friday afternoon and a forensic team was examining it for clues.
Police headquarters spokesman Michael Player said an inquiry had been launched into the matter. He said a technical malfunction of the magnitude described would be extremely unusual and police would examine the automatic record of events to establish what had happened.
Player said he expected inquiries to be complete by tomorrow at latest.
The automated service is run for police under contract by Telecom. Company spokesman Mark Watts said the company was "very concerned" about the situation described by Gundy and would work with police to find what might have gone wrong.
"We'll try to get to the bottom of it as soon as we can and we'll stay in touch with Mr Gundy - we're concerned at the claims that have been made so we'll investigate thoroughly."
Watts said as far as he was aware, no other Telecom customers had similar complaints and the company had not been contacted about Gundy's problems until yesterday evening.
