Don’t cry ‘cat’: false call for help may land Spanish citizen with very real fine

A 40-YEAR-OLD man from Calatayud in Zaragoza, in North-East Spain may potentially be fined €600,000 for wasting police time.

The incident occurred when the distressed man called an emergency helpline claiming that his two daughters were trapped inside a car after someone had disabled the child locks by poking sticks into them. This inevitably led to the door jamming and his daughters being locked in.

An emergency response unit consisting of police and fire-fighters was immediately sent out to the location for a rapid rescue mission, only to find that the two ‘daughters’ the man had spoken of were, in fact, cats, and the car they were trapped in was actually his own apartment.

The man had locked himself out and needed help breaking down his front door, as he was concerned for the wellbeing of his two pets. When questioned, he admitted that he had exaggerated the situation and explained that he referred to his feline friends as his daughters because he was emotionally attached to them.

Under Zaragoza’s Civil Protection and Emergencies legislation the man can be facing an enormous fine for wasting police time in this manner. Furthermore, the law even has a specific footnote for animal owners who lie to police authorities to get assistance saving pets; warranting a fine of between €150,000 and €600,000.