The 50-year-old woman's action was “unbelievable” said Axel Deitermann, police spokesman in Oberhausen, North Rhine-Westphalia, the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung reported.

Operators answered the woman's call at around 8pm on Monday. Confronted with her urgent request for help, they dispatched a patrol car to her house.

But when the officers arrived, she explained that she didn't need any help and that she had just called to register her dissatisfaction with the takeaway food.

The woman appeared unruffled by the officers' explanation that by calling 110 to express her displeasure she might have stopped a genuine emergency call from getting through, saying that she would happily do the same thing again.

Because of her failure to see sense, the dissatisfied customer now faces criminal charges – as misuse of the emergency number is punishable with a fine or up to a year in prison.