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Confused corn maze visitors end up calling 911 to get them out

DIXON, Calif. - Cool Patch Pumpkins claims on their website that visitors will be "turning in circles" once they get far enough inside its corn maze. But some who dare to brave the labyrinth get so confused they wind up calling 911 to help them get out.

The 63-acre walk-through puzzle is in the Guiness Book of World Records as the world's largest corn maze and while it's meant to be fun, cops say people get to the point where they are calling for help and use up police resources.

"I think they are overwhelmed," Solano County Sheriff's Dept. Deputy Daryl Snedeker told CBS Sacramento. "You can get a little worked up when you can't get out of a place and everything looks the same."

But when lost maze wayfarers give up and call authorities, that can tie up lines that are needed for other dispatches, said Snedeker.

"If we are in the middle of a critical incident and deputies are being dispatched to a critical incident, that can take away from what a dispatcher needs to do," he said. The rescue request then gets routed back to Matt Cooley, who owns the maze and says incidents of lost visitors to the maize maze happen every weekend.

"They are afraid and they are tired. They are tired of being lost, which is the whole idea," said Cooley.

He said getting lost in the maze is really all part of the fun and calling for emergency help isn't necessary.

"Everybody ends up getting out ... just don't call 911."

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