Caters
Police were called to a three-year-old's birthday party because they lit the candles on his cake! Or that's what the family say.
Natasha Bent, from Stoke-on-Trent, mum to three-year-old Oscar, wanted to light the candles on her son's birthday cake during his party at the Rumble Tumble play centre in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent.
Staff told Natasha that the candles had to be 'supervised' and the cake and candles had to be taken to a 'special area' for health and safety reasons.
If that wasn't slightly obsessive on its own, staff then called the police to deal with the situation!
"All we wanted to do was sing happy birthday and have Oscar blow out the candles," says Natasha. "We just tried to reason with a staff member, but she said we were bullying her and told us to leave, saying she was going to call the police.
"When we were there we brought in Oscar's birthday cake from the car, but just as we were going to light the candles they told us we couldn't.
"In the end we went outside and lit the candles in the car park. Oscar and the other children started crying when the police turned up."
A worker at the play centre told police they had been called as she felt intimidated by the family.
Natasha's partner David Meir, aged 32, said: "When the police officer told us the staff member had accused us of intimidating her, I just laughed. We weren't acting aggressively. I had my two sons with me so there's no way I'd do that in front of them."
A police spokesman said: "Officers established the dispute was over the level of service received and advice was given to all involved."
What do you think?
No smoke without fire or another case of health and safety gone mad?