Seven-year-old calls 911 because she fears her 'Elf on the Shelf' has lost its Christmas magic

The little girl panicked after her 'Elf on the Shelf' fell to the ground. Photo / Elf on the Shelf Facebook

Her mum was napping when the unthinkable happened.

Izzy LaPeruta, 7, was playing with a ball inside her New Jersey living room, next to a Christmas tree wrapped in colourful lights. She had bad aim, or the ball bounced, or ricocheted off the tree - who can be sure? - all that matters is that in the living room chaos, a little elf doll sitting in a red felt stocking plummeted onto the carpet.

If you're not familiar with Elf on the Shelf, the children's book that comes with a household elf, you might not understand what a catastrophe this would be for a 7-year-old who has high hopes for Christmas morning.

But Izzy understood. According to the book, this little leotard-wearing elf was sent by Santa to scope out who should be on the nice list. Every night, the elf flies back to the North Pole, and gives the big man a daily report.

If you want to keep your elf to keep up the good behavior reports, "There's only one rule that you have to follow, so I will come back and be here tomorrow," it says. "Please do not touch me. My magic might go, and Santa won't hear all I've seen or I know."

So there went the ball, and there tumbled the elf, and suddenly this 7-year-old was in quite a Christmas conundrum.

Her mum was asleep and her dad wasn't home. She called the people she'd been taught to call in a true emergency.

"Hello?" the 911 operator answered.

"It's Isabella."

"Hi, hi Isabella. Why are you calling 911?"

Then, NBC News reports, the girl panicked.

"Don't come to my house!" she screamed into the phone. "Don't, don't! I was trying to call my dad, but it was an accident."

The dispatchers sent an officer to the house to find a panicked child and a mother waking up from a nap to discover that a police officer was at her door.

"She was hysterical crying, she was panicking," her mom, Lynanne, said.

The amused officers radioed back that all was well inside the house.

Izzy told reporters, "I didn't want to get in trouble." It's unclear whether she meant from the police, her parents, or Santa.