phone prankster ...

[Paul Anderson]

... Monday night about 9:45 got knock at the door.
2 police, said 911 call placed at phone booth at corner store (across street, 2 doors down), saying there was a fire at my address.
They asked me some questions like date of birth, had I pissed anyone off recently, etc., and did a walkthrough of the house to see if everything looked ok to them.
While leaving, they radioed and cancelled ambulance and firetruck.

I asked manager at corner store (they have one of their security cameras pointing at the phone booth) if it was recorded.
Didn't get a straight answer, so guessing no. He did tell me awhile previously that 911 called him because some called from same booth saying store was on fire.

Ran into to my neighbour this morning, she said firetruck outside of their place last night.
They jumped the fence and searched the railway tunnel because someone reported a fire in there.

Makes me wonder if there is a real fire in the neighbourhood would they be slower to respond because of this phone jerk.

[aeronca1]

3 times? Time to stake out that booth. there is a cost to false alarms not to mention what would happen if there was a real alarm while the FD was chasing a false one....

[Navy Chief]

That apparently is the latest crank fad. When I was a teenager, the worst thing we did was put toilet paper on trees.. These kids need to be caught and punished. Serious stuff....

NC

[mgchrist5]

I'd be absolutely livid. Good luck with this, Paul. Hopefully the punks are dumb enough to try it again at the same booth...this time while under surveillance.

[Daveroo]

here in california..if caught..they would get a hefty fine and most likely jail time..not taken lightly here now...

but to answer your question ...no..it wont affect your responce time,as long as you have a professional police and fire department they will continue to take all calls seriously...which is why california punishes those who do stipid stuff like make crank calls and arson...

back in the early 70s....dads plectron (early way of dispatching volunteer firemen,was replaced by the pagers)went off in the middle of the night,it was loud and allways woke all of us up..we all..mom,dad..my sister and i heard the address...dad got up..grabbed his gear,,mom did whatever it was she did,my sister was complaining about the noise..and i was laying in my bed thinking to myself...gosh that address seems familure....i knew it was on our street..so i went ahead and got out of bed to see what was up...

as i went outside...there was dad..mom handing him his fire helmet,,,and the nieghbors up the street,bill and jane,and thier two sons..bill jr and allen(the guy who now works for JGR)and they were yelling get out get out,,about then..bert and refina across the street..same thing..bert,bill and dad all firemen..then goerge from around the corner runs up..out of breath,,also a volunteer fireman...and yells dave cathy..you and the kids ok?..whats on fire???

dad stops dead in his tracks with all this..and looks at these people and says......"huh?".....at about this time a police car comes screaming over the hill and its one of dads buddies whos also in a panic and he runs the police car into the concrete block wall with a crunch...20 minutes later..we have 4 fire engines..just about every fireman in the auburn fire departmentand the local cops and several sheriffs deputies out front and no fire....

turns out..my cousin had called the police and called in a fire ,saying he could see flames coming from the rear of the house....he got a spankin......

[Gdavis101]

The other new thing is SWATTING, calling in a bogus 911 call to report some kind of brutal crime at a residence and then SWAT responds only to confront the unknowing home owner.. This is terrible because its only a matter of time before someone gets hurt because SWAT has to take the call as a real complaint and treat it as such.

[Warhawk1130]

Wow...phone booths still exist?

[mgchrist5]

Wow...phone booths still exist?

That was kind of my first thought on this matter, too. Unfortunately, incidents like this will probably only accelerate the demise of booths in certain locations.

[stansdds]

Pay phones still exist, but they are few and far between. In Virginia, a prank 911 call is a serious offense. It is a class 1 misdemeanor, which is punishable by up to a year in jail, a $2,500 fine, or both. In Virginia it is also illegal to make false reports of emergencies or disasters by telephone to anyone, private or public, so it is not limited to 911 calls.