Courtesy of Baidu Images

Emergency services in Shenzhen were aghast when they received 3,239 nuisance calls over a period of 40 days. It later emerged the person making the calls was a mentally challenged man, Southern Metropolis Daily reports.

The 110 hotline received over 30 calls a day from the same phone number during the period which ended August 9. According to one worker at the call center, the caller said the same thing each time: “All he ever said was, ‘I love you, my dear wife’.” The man has since been turned into the police by his family. Police confirmed the mentally challenged man was born in 1990 and has an IQ of only 46.

Asked why he made the calls, the man explained that he had heard the number was for people seeking help, and he wanted help but did not know how to articulate this. Confused, he just blurted out, “I love you my dear wife.”

It later emerged that he had a history of making crank phone calls. He called a police station more than 10,000 times in three months last year.

He has been detained for three days. Police at the Futian Public Security Bureau say they hope his parents will prevent him from doing it again.