911 Call: ‘They messed up my sandwich’

Here’s the latest in the category of stories that make you say, “Huh?” Police in East Hartford, Conn., say a man angry that a deli got his sandwich order wrong decided to take his beef to a higher authority, according to The Associated Press (AP). So he called 911.

All together now: Huh? That was the 911 dispatcher’s reaction, too, when Rother McLennon called to complain that he “specifically asked for little turkey and little ham, and a lot of cheese and a lot of mayonnaise,” and the Grateful Deli in East Hartford got it wrong.

“You’re calling 911 because you don’t like the way that they’re making your sandwich?” the dispatcher asked. “Exactly,” McLennon replied.

 After recovering her wits, the 911 dispatcher offered McLennon the obvious advice: Don’t buy the sandwich. But she dutifully dispatched a patrol car anyway. You can listen to the full call, courtesy of NBC affiliate WVIT-TV.

Turns out, McLennon had placed an order for 14 sandwiches. The deli owner said they made the order as he specified, but McLennon disagreed – that whole too much turkey, too little mayonnaise thing. But the sandwiches were a special order, so the deli couldn’t take them back.

“I just want to solve this the right way,” McLennon told 911. The deli owner was agreeable: She let him use her phone to call police.

McLennon apparently reconsidered his complaint. He called the deli later to apologize.