Police are warning the public not to make time-wasting 999 calls after they received complaints of cold kebabs and noisy foxes.

Scotland Yard said Christmas and new year was the busiest time of year for the emergency services, and nuisance calls wasted valuable resources.

The Metropolitan police released a list of 10 of the worst offenders, including a caller who wanted to know where to get a bacon sandwich, and another who was angry that clowns were selling balloons for £5 each.

On average the Met receives more than 4.5m calls a year to the 999 and 101 numbers.

Ch Supt Pippa Mills, head of the Met’s command and control, said: “This is just a sample of inappropriate calls received by our operators this year. Callers who do not have an emergency may prevent others who require our immediate assistance from getting through to us. This presents a real risk to our ability to respond to genuine emergency calls.”

She said 999 should only be dialled in an emergency, and if the complaint was not an emergency 101 should be called.

The 10 time-wasting calls highlighted by the Met police were:

• A woman calling to say she had bought a cold kebab and the shop would not replace it.

• Callers who missed their alarm and were going to be late for a flight wanting officers to take them to the airport.

• A woman who had seen a clown in London selling balloons for £5 each, which was much more than other clowns were charging.

• Callers in distress because their low-fuel indicator light had come on.

• A man calling to say his 50p coin was stuck in a washing machine at his local launderette and he wanted police to retrieve it.

• A man who did not have change for a parking machine claiming staff at a car park had kidnapped him because they were refusing to let him out for free.

• A caller who dialled 999 at 4am on a Saturday morning and asked: “Where is the best place to get a bacon sandwich right now?”

• A man who called 999 as he was advised to call 111 but did not know the number.

• A woman who wanted police to deal with a couple of noisy foxes outside her home as they were preventing her from sleeping.

• A woman who dialled 999 to say there were men in her house trying to take her away. The men in question were police officers who had come to arrest her.