NEWS: Police: Boy Made Hundreds of Bogus 911 Calls, page 1

posted on Feb, 16 2005 @ 03:49 PM

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A 15 year old is under arrest and is accused of making hundreds of prank 911 calls. The calls using a cell phone swamped emergency dispatchers. Often, the caller would threaten to kill officers that responded. The teenager was tracked down Sunday when he made 25 calls in 75 minutes.

story.news.yahoo.com
ST. LOUIS - A teenager has been accused of using a stolen cell phone to swamp dispatchers with hundreds of bogus 911 calls over a matter of weeks, at times talking of killing some of the responding officers he could see.

The 15-year-old boy sometimes was such a nuisance he called in new emergencies at the same address where officers already were standing, St. Louis County police spokesman Mason Keller said Wednesday.

Such was the case Sunday, when the young suspect was tracked down only after dispatchers fielded 25 bogus calls within 75 minutes to the same area where the officer already had arrived, Keller said.

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The kid was actually smart enough to use a stolen cell phone that could only call 911. That is one thing the companies that provide service do not want to advertise. How many of us know someone that simply keeps a low level account for emergencies? By law they have to direct you to 911 subscriber or not. Any cell phone (especially the dual band ones) can call in an emergency to the local 911 operator.

BasementAddix

posted on Feb, 16 2005 @ 03:53 PM

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I wonder if anyone who actually needed the police was seriously affect due to his stupidity...?

Countermeasures

posted on Feb, 16 2005 @ 04:10 PM

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They can can always track the 15 digit IMEI hardware number of the phone, even for 911 this information is send with the call, but it's not something they like to say out loud, in the end this prankster got careless by making succesive phonecalls from the same area.

[edit on 16-2-2005 by Countermeasures]

FredT

posted on Feb, 16 2005 @ 04:15 PM

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Originally posted by Countermeasures
in the end this prankster got careless by making succesive phonecalls from the same area.

Yes 25 calls in 75 minutes is not too smart. However, since each phone has a unique identifier for billing, why not block that phone from the system?

TO the poster above, aparently not to many police were dispatched as they caught on to him rather quickly.