December 23, 2015
The powerful spell of the Elf on the Shelf was demonstrated to full effect this week when a 7-year-old New Jersey girl freaked out after knocking her family's elf to the floor. Fearing she had ruined Christmas, she bolted to the phone to call her dad, but wound up calling 911 instead.
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Isabelle LaPeruta, of Old Bridge, did not want to leave anything to chance, according to USA Today. As soon as she got through to the emergency controller, however, she tried to explain that she somehow dialed the wrong number.
Isabelle begged not to have the police dispatched, but since they are legally required to investigate emergency calls, it was too late. Her mother awoke from a nap to find Isabelle telling a responding officer that he ought to go home, nothing to see here.
"To her, it was an emergency when she touched the elf, and she's going to ruin Christmas, so that was her emergency," Old Bridge Police Lt. Joseph Mandola told NBC New York. "In her mind, she did right, and it was fine with us."
During an annual event for Old Bridge firefighters and police officers to drive around town dressed in Christmas costumes, officers made sure to pay Isabelle a special visit from Santa to prove the laws of Christmas weren't violated.
Listen to the 911 call over at USA Today's SoundCloud.
