Lost contact lenses, need an ambulance?

It's the silly season in the news, that's for sure. In optics we have had a report of bees protecting the lead flashing on a practice's roof in Belfast http://www.opticianonline.net/Articles/2012/08/31/29948/Lead+thieves+thwarted+by+beekeeper+optometrist.htm, although there are no witness statements to back up the involvement of the bees. Then outside of optics, although it perhaps illustrates the need for regular vision checks, a large cat sparked a lion hunt in Essex http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/aug/27/essex-lion-hunt-bank-holiday. Last week there was a report of a woman standing outside a Specsavers practice who dialled 999 to say that she could not find her glasses http://www.opticianonline.net/Articles/2012/08/24/29923/Optician+news+in+brief.htm. Now this week we have another 'crazy reason why people call 999', this time from Suffolk, where someone thought it a good use of the East of England Ambulance Service's time to report their lost contact lenses http://tinyurl.com/cfk68ws. Did the person's practitioner not recommend back-up spectacles, additional contact lenses, or regular visits to the practice? Perhaps it was an online purchaser who couldn't wait a couple of days for delivery of new lenses? The most inappropriate call was deemed to be someone reporting knee pain since 1974, which I have to say is probably a bit more bothersome than lost contact lenses. It had also been ongoing for some 33 years (it was reported five years ago) yet nonetheless a waste of the ambulance service's time. Roll on September.