A 7-year-old New Jersey girl called 911 in a panic when she did something that she thought would get her in trouble with Santa.
Isabella LaPeruta, of Old Bridge, contacted cops after she accidentally touched her Elf on the Shelf -- a no-no, according to the popular children's book, because doing so means the Christmas magic goes away from the home.
A recording of the 911 call revealed the girl's concerns.
"Hello?" the 911 operator says.
"It's Isabella," the girl says.
"Hi. Hi, Isabella. Why are you calling 911?" the operator asks.
Suddenly, the girl panics.
"Don't come to my house!" she shouts. "Don't!"
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She goes on to explain, "I was trying to call my dad" to tell him about the accident.
The operator responds, "You can just say you made a mistake."
Despite Izzy's pleas, police have to check out any 911 call from a child, so an officer went to the home and when he arrived, found the girl in tears.
The officer calmed Isabella down as her mother woke from a nap and found her daughter trying to shoo away the cop.
"She was hysterical crying, she was panicking," said Lynanne LaPeruta.
Izzy admitted later, "I didn't want to get in trouble."
She said the elf fell onto the floor when she threw a ball.
The officer radioed back to headquarters: "Isabella apologized. She touched the Elf on a Shelf. She won't call 911 again."
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Police were understanding.
"To her, it was an emergency when she touched the elf, and she's going to ruin Christmas, so that was her emergency," said Old Bridge Police Lt. Joseph Mandola. "In her mind, she did right, and it was fine with us."
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Izzy said of Santa: "He knows I'm not going to do that again."
Lynanne said her daughter now knows what constitutes a true emergency.
"I think she knows not to call 911 unless it's an emergency, and an Elf of the Shelf falling off the shelf is not an emergency," she said.
