London Fire Brigade speculates ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ behind increased handcuff emergency calls

The London Fire department has seen a spike in calls related to people getting stuck in handcuffs over the past three years, a trend that could be related to E. L. James’ popular erotic novel series Fifty Shades of Grey.

“I don’t know whether it’s the ‘Fifty Shades’ effect, but the number of incidents involving items like handcuffs seems to have gone up,” Third Officer Dave Brown tells the Associated Press.

The London Fire Brigade released data about the number of people getting body parts stuck in objects on Monday, as part of a campaign to encourage safety and reduce phone calls to 999 — the equivalent of our 911.

In total, the London Fire Brigade responded to 1,300 calls of people getting stuck in stuff since 2010, it said Monday. Of those calls, 79 incidents involved handcuffs.

Also, just in case you were wondering, here are some of the other ways Londoners got themselves stuck in things:

• 18 incidents involving children with their heads stuck in potties or toilet seats
• Five incidents involving people’s hands being stuck in shredders
• Nine instances of men with rings stuck on their penises
• Four incidents where people had their hands stuck in blenders
• 17 incidents involving children with their fingers stuck in toys, including one with lego stuck on his finger

There was also one incident of each of the following over the past three years:

• A man with his penis stuck in a toaster
• A man with his arm stuck in a portaloo
• A child with its hand trapped in a sweet machine
• A child with its head trapped in an ironing board
• An adult stuck in a child’s toy car
• A child with its head stuck in a massage chair
• A child with its foot stuck in a brass vase
• Someone with a test tube stuck on their finger
• A child with a tambourine stuck on its head
• A man with a sewing machine needle stuck in his finger

While it is easy to laugh at those silly Brits calling the emergency number when a foray with a toaster goes awry, Canada has its share of shameful emergency calls, too.

The Chatham-Kent Police Service, near Windsor, released its top 12 silly calls list for 2012. Items on it include a man who called police because he lost his bottom dentures, someone whose winning Tim Hortons cup was stolen from an unlocked car and a woman who was attacked (and unharmed) by an evil duck.