Four million butts dial 911

emergencies, a consultant's report commissioned by the mayor's office found, eMissourian.com reveals.

The inadvertent - or 'butt dial' calls - accounted for nearly 40% of the 10.4 million 911 calls received in 2010.

Police cars were dispatched to 3.5 million of the calls received, according to the Daily News. The disproportionate number of accidental calls was among the findings in the consultant's report, an edited version of which was released after legal efforts to force the mayor to make it public.

New York is not the only city suffering from butts who insist on dialling 911, Gather News reports.

Toronto, Canada, reports at least 300 butt-dials a day, butts in Douglas County, Nebraska, made 3 000 calls to 911 in one month, while Evanston, Illinois, estimates 20% of 911 calls to its emergency call centre are made by butts.

Not all butt-dials waste responders' time. Last December, two thieves were apprehended after stealing videogames and DVDs from a Target in Madison, Wisconsin. It appears one of the thieves' butts decided enough was enough and dialled 911. The emergency call centre operator recorded the hour-long call, and the two thieves were quickly located.

In the meantime, the butt dials make NYPD first responder call centre reps look good with their average total talk time of just 1:08 minutes per call, thanks to 3.9 million calls that averaged just 19 seconds, The Inquisistr reports.