Seven-year-old New Jersey resident Isabelle LaPeruta called 911 to tell on herself. She had touched her Elf on the Shelf and thought she had inadvertently destroyed the magic of Christmas, based on the story she’d read. NBC reported the following conversation:

OPERATOR: “Hello?”

ISABELLA: “It's Isabella."

OPERATOR: "Hi. Hi, Isabella. Why are you calling 911?"

ISABELLA: “Don't come to my house. Don’t!”

Police ignored her pleas and sent an officer to Isabella’s house, under the reasoning that they have to do their job and stuff. There the officer found a crying Isabella and reported. “Isabella apologised. She touched the Elf on a Shelf. She won’t call 911 again.”

Isabella’s mother Lyanne then woke up from her nap as her daughter was trying to get the officer out of the house. “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,” her mom said.

Fortunately, Isabella did not in fact destroy the magic of Christmas, as it was already destroyed when Paul McCartney recorded “Simply Havin’ A Wonderful Christmas Time.”

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