911 mayhem: Florida man charged with faking more than 1,100 calls for help

Yahoo! News/AP ^ | 7.6.02

[mhking]

911 mayhem: Florida man charged with faking more than 1,100 calls for help
Sat Jul 6, 5:32 PM ET

GAINESVILLE, Florida - A Florida man was charged with faking more than 1,100 calls to the 911 emergency number, tying up lines for two days.

Michael A. Holmes, 20, placed the calls June 30 and Monday because he was bored, an Alachua County Sheriff's Office spokesman said.

He was arrested Tuesday and charged with felony extortion and misuse of 911 emergency communications.

"We normally have 190 cell phone calls in a 24-hour period. One night, he gave us over 800," said Sgt. Keith Faulk. "If something really bad had happened, this could have kept somebody from getting help."

Sometimes Holmes would hang up, other times he would call on different phones at the same time and hold them together so dispatchers could hear each other talking, police said.

"My first call was the subject saying, 'Help me, help me. I'm dying,' but it was in a really odd tone of voice — it sounded almost like he was laughing," said dispatcher Allison Marler.

[mhking]

"Hold muh beer" alert!

[Tourist Guy]

A few years back, we had a idiot similar to this guy calling fake distress calls to the Coast Guard. By triangulation (over several days of short, intermittent calls) they nailed the idiot making the broadcasts from a marine radio in his garage.

It's beyond stupid.

[Paul Atreides]

Florida...it's always Florida. They are like the Robert Downy, Jr. of states; no sooner do you hear one bit of insanity from them then they're on to another. I think Jeb needs to test the water down there.

[Paul Atreides]

Michael A. Holmes, 20, placed the calls June 30 and Monday because he was bored, an Alachua County Sheriff's Office spokesman said.

God forbid he should pick up a book and read (assuming he a. knows what a book is, and b. knows how to read).

[ghostrider]

The problem with Florida isn't Floridians, it is all those god-for-saken yankees that polute the place.

[Bringbackthedraft]

I bet this guy is a native. Too hot now for the snowbirds although this dualy will be down there in a week.

[cksharks]

Amen. Bet he was a University of Fl student.

[livius]

Actually, he wasn't a UF student. He was a 20 year old black guy who lives in a crummy part of town and really didn't look like he'd be up to doing something like this. He has an arrest record for a couple of other odd things, though, so I'd suspect he's probably a bit of a nut. (I live in Gainesville, where this was well reported, needless to say!)

[Jonathon Spectre]

You know, wouldn't you think you'd get tired of doing this by oh, the SIX OR SEVEN HUNDREDTH CALL!?!?!

Maybe this guy should have been looking for a job if he was so bored.