Two discarded fridges caused an emergency service response in Aberdeen yesterday.
Aberdeen Lifeboat was scrambled at 8.20pm last night to reports of wreckage sighted off the small harbour at Cove.
The Bon Accord raced to the scene and arrived at 8.45pm only to discover it was two fridge freezers that had been fly-tipped into the water.
Assisted by the coastguard onshore, the lifeboat secured the two kitchen utilities on deck and returned them to Aberdeen.
The RNLI hit out at the people responsible for dumping the fridges as they could have caused a real emergency if they had hit a vessel.
Aberdeen Lifeboat coxswain Davie Orr said: “Whoever dumped these fridges showed a casual disregard for the environment, sea safety and also caused a significant waste of search and rescue funds and resources.
“Fridges float, and can drift a long way. These two items could easily have holed a small vessel and caused a real emergency at sea.”
“Our crew also had to break from social-distancing rules to attend the call, with the associated risks.
“The fridges were bulky and awkward to bring on deck but needed to be recovered to avoid another incident. We will always be ready to respond to any report of concern for safety at sea, but we hope the lesson of tonight’s false alarm will strike home.”
Scottish Conservative north-east MSP Tom Mason said: “I’m shocked and absolutely appalled that someone would dump two fridge-freezers into Cove Harbour.
“There is absolutely no excuse for this mindless act of fly-tipping, putting lives at risk of those out at sea in the process.
“It’s completely irresponsible for someone to resort to this simply because they couldn’t be bothered to dispose of the fridge-freezers properly or possibly didn’t want to wait for a space at a recycling centre.
“These incidents take our fantastic RNLI crews away from possibly responding to other emergencies which is why everything must be done to reduce these sorts of reckless instances.”