Calling 999 does not charge your mobile phone battery

Idiotic things people will believe: The Bedfordshire Police recently posted a statement on their website, informing everyone that calling 999 and then disconnecting immediately will not actually boost the battery life of your mobile phone battery, despite a rumor to the contrary. Apparently emergency operators have been receiving a lot of these phone-charging calls.

There's a similar rumor that claims you can recharge your mobile phone by putting it in a microwave for a minute. Also not true.

Don’t Ring 999 to Charge Your Mobile – It Doesn’t Work!
Bedfordshire Police would like to warn mobile phone users not to phone 999 to charge their mobiles.
It is known that a rumour or urban myth suggesting that calling 999 and disconnecting immediately will boost the battery life of a phone has been circulating for some time throughout the country.
Over the past 6 months the Force Control Room (FCR) has received numerous calls from members of the public who believe the myth and are incorrectly trying to get more power out of their mobile device.
Inspector Claire Ackerman, of the Force Control Room, said, “This myth has been circulating for some time now and we are not the only force to have suffered from these false calls. Calling 999 for anything other than an emergency or a non-police matter puts additional pressure on resources, ties up an operator and wastes valuable time that could be better spent helping genuine callers possibly in a life-threatening situation. The only way to boost a mobile phone battery is to use a charger.”

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