Life imitating The IT Crowd?

That's The IT Crowd's satire from a couple of years ago.

Then there's a real story from April of this year on the BBC site. When I saw the headline, "New non-emergency police number," I thought, "Maybe they established a second, equally-easy-to-remember number, like maybe 998 or 911." Then I read the story:

"Tayside Police have introduced a new number for all non-emergency calls.

"Residents should still dial 999 in emergencies but for all other inquiries should use 0845 600 5705.

"It is hoped the single number will reduce confusion among callers and also cut down on the amount of trivial matters being reported through 999.

"This is one of the first steps in moving to a single non-emergency number for use across all police force areas in Scotland."

What's that new number again?

0118 999 881 999 119 7253