One woman used the public site to report her teenage son missing while others asked if officers had a hovercraft and what time a car boot sale opened.

It has prompted Northamptonshire Police, which has been using the popular social networking website to highlight operations and appeal for witnesses for the past two years, to tell residents to use the traditional method of the telephone instead if they want to report a crime or anti-social behaviour on their streets.

The force’s corporate communications team, which monitors the site, wrote online on Monday: “Morning all, we've had lots of people reporting crimes over the weekend on Facebook - unfortunately we are unable to monitor the page 24/7 so if you have an issue please call us on 101 or in an emergency (crime in action, fear for safety for example) then always dial 999.”