7-Year-Old N.J. Girl Calls 911 for Elf on the Shelf Emergency — Listen to the Audio

The popular Christmas book and home decoration, Elf on the Shelf, is a fun holiday tradition for many families. But for 7-year-old Isaballa LaPeruta, it’s serious business.

According to the popular children’s book, once a family adopts an Elf on the Shelf, it receives Christmas magic that enables it to fly to the North Pole while the family sleeps and relay to Santa the day’s happenings. If a child touches the Elf on the Shelf, the Christmas magic leaves the home.

Guess what Isabella did.

After throwing a ball that knocked her family’s elf right off his shelf, the 7-year-old New Jersey resident panicked and called 911, WNBC reported. Perhaps the police would be able to expunge her name from the naughty list before it was too late.

Isabella’s exchange with the 911 operator speaks for itself:

"Hello?" the operator said.

"It's Isabella," the girl said.

"Hi. Hi, Isabella. Why are you calling 911?" the operator asked.

Then came the panic.

"Don't come to my house!" she shouted. "Don't!"

Isabella told the operator that she was trying to call her dad to tell him what had happened.

Unfortunately for Isabella, police are obligated to check out 911 calls from children. Despite her assurance that all was well (it wasn’t), an officer arrived to find the girl in tears.

According to WNBC, the Isabella’s mother, who was napping at the time, awoke to find the officer trying to calm her hysterical daughter.

"She was hysterical crying, she was panicking," Lynanne LaPeruta told WNBC.

"I didn't want to get in trouble,” Isabella explained.

The understanding officer radioed back to headquarters: "Isabella apologized. She touched the Elf on a Shelf. She won't call 911 again."

"To her, it was an emergency when she touched the elf, and she's going to ruin Christmas, so that was her emergency," Old Bridge Police Lt. Joseph Mandola said. "In her mind, she did right, and it was fine with us."

Isabella is pretty confident about her current standing with Santa: "He knows I'm not going to do that again."

Lynanne believes her daughter learned a valuable lesson about what constitutes a genuine 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.”

Watch the video here:

(H/T: WNBC)

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