Firefighters lose cool after woman calls ’30 times a day’ seeking SIM top-up

North Okkalapa firefighters demonstrating protocols to superiors, Dec. 9, 2018 – via North Okkalapa Fire Department Facebook page.
North Okkalapa firefighters demonstrating protocols to superiors, Dec. 9, 2018 – via North Okkalapa Fire Department Facebook page.

Fire departments have many important functions. They’ll rescue you from a burning building, put out a forest fire, even rescue a cat that’s climbed a utility pole. What they won’t do, however, is top up your SIM card.

That’s a concept that one woman in Yangon had some trouble grasping this week, as she allegedly bombarded the North Okkalapa Fire Station emergency hotline with “repeated phone calls” demanding exactly that.

Fed up, the fire department went public with the situation last night, posting about the woman’s alleged harassment on their Facebook page.

Screenshot of Facebook post on North Okkalapa official page on Feb. 4, 2019.
Screenshot of Facebook post on North Okkalapa official page on Feb. 4, 2019.

In a post that has received more than 2,600 likes and 658 shares as of press time, the department said they’d been called by the same individual 30 times a day, even after repeated pleas to stop, with the same demand each time: “top up her SIM card or else she would continue calling repeatedly.”

In addition to threatening legal action, the fire station also went arguably a step too far, publishing the anonymous caller’s phone number.

Netizens immediately began texting and calling her number, and posting the messages they’d left her online. Unsurprisingly, by the time Coconuts Yangon was attempting to get her side of the story ourselves, the woman had long since turned off her phone.

While several commenters spun unsubstantiated theories as to the woman’s motivations, most simply took her task for what they saw as highly irresponsible actions that could jeopardize public safety.

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