Weird council complaints: Banyule Council staff reveal their most bizarre moments

A LOST cat taken to a supermarket to have its microchip scanned. Reports of a monkey in a backyard. A request for a hard waste collection from a bedroom. No, these calls for help from Banyule Council are not made up.

Spotted a cow in your backyard? Ring the council.

A LOST cat was taken to the supermarket to get its microchip scanned at the check-out till, while cows roamed around a Heidelberg Heights backyard — a taste of complaints Banyule Council deals with daily.

It’s easy to sink the boot into council about dodgy roads peppered with potholes, but spare a thought for staff who have to remain polite while dealing with numerous complaints that can only be described as bizarre.

This is the correct way to have a cat’s microchip scanned (hint: there’s a vet involved).

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A council officer asked a resident where they were phoning from. The reply? A cafe. Another homeowner wanted their hard waste to be collected from their bedroom.

The kerb: the place from which hard waste is normally collected.

The animal management team has endured a number of hairy moments too.

Someone dialled council in a panic thinking they had a monkey in their backyard. Monkeys can only be seen in zoos, but the long-suffering officer went off to investigate anyway.

It turned out to be a possum.

Cute, but unlikely to be found in suburban backyards.

And in a story that is so wacky it sounds made-up, a woman’s snake halted traffic on Waterdale Rd in Ivanhoe.

When she spotted the slithering reptile, she picked it up and asked: “How did you get out?”

Totally normal for a pet snake to stop traffic.

Council’s health department isn’t immune either.

One resident struggled to get some shut-eye because of an unbearable squealing noise emanating, from what he believed to be his neighbour’s air conditioning unit.

The council investigated. It was the complainant’s air con unit that needed servicing.

Before you complain about a noisy air conditioner, make sure it’s not yours.

Another ratepayer vigorously denied any illegally burning of rubbish. The council officer pointed to a large inferno in the backyard where flames were burning higher than the roof line.