During her junior year of college, TikToker Jess (@jm.bakered) called the police because she thought there was a snake in her room. She was doing her schoolwork when she suddenly heard hissing coming from a corner of the room.
She grew up in Virginia with snakes in her backyard, so she was familiar with them. The reusable grocery bags in the corner of her room started moving, and she saw a long, black tail poking out.
She froze and then hopped up on her chair. She texted her roommate for help, but her roommate immediately left their apartment once she saw the word “snake.”
So, Jess called her mom, who instructed her to call animal control. Unfortunately, animal control was closed. Next, she called on-campus housing for help, and they told her to contact building maintenance.
By that point, she had been crouched on her chair for at least 10 minutes, and her thighs were starting to ache. She decided to climb onto her bed for higher ground. She kept her eyes fixed on the corner of the room.
Building maintenance told her that this wasn’t their problem and to call emergency services. She called the non-emergency line but was transferred to emergency services.
The 911 dispatcher asked her a bunch of questions about the snake, but all Jess knew was that it was in her room, and she was trapped.
Five to 10 minutes later, a police officer knocked on the door. Jess had to run out to let him in, and then she told him about the snake.
“This man shrieks like a girl and hops up onto my computer chair the way I did when I initially saw the snake, quaking,” said Jess. “He radios for backup, and now, I’m not freaked out, but I’m watching this grown man quiver in my chair.”
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The front door was left open, so the second cop walked straight in with a grabber pickup tool to catch the snake. He picked up the reusable grocery bags and shook them all, but no snake appeared.
All of a sudden, the biggest lizard she had ever seen leaped out, causing the second cop to shriek in fear because he was afraid of lizards.
The first police officer was not scared of lizards, so he was able to handle it. He grabbed the lizard around its torso and took it outside.
“So then, I had to give an official police statement about a lizard in my bedroom, and that is the dumbest reason I ever called the cops,” Jess concluded.
Many TikTok users shared the unnecessary reasons they called the police for in the comments section.
“Not me, but my neighbor called the cops on my roommates once because she and her friends were playing charades too loudly,” commented one user.
“My mom called the cops because she saw people on our security cam waving flashlights around in the backyard (it was the light reflecting off a spiderweb),” shared another.
“I called the cops on my grandma when I was 10 because she wouldn’t buy me gum,” stated a third.
By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
