By Jodi Spiegel Arthur, The Intelligencer (Philadelphia, Penn.)
A man Warminster police arrested for making more than a dozen fake 911 calls told police he did it as a joke.
They didn’t think it was funny - particularly since the caller gave bogus reports of police officers being shot or in need of assistance.
“It’s the highest priority call that police respond to,” Warminster Lt. Christopher Springfield said Thursday. Police come from all over Bucks County when they hear a call of an officer down, and they respond quickly under emergency conditions.
“It places everyone in jeopardy, the police and the public,” he said. “This is really stupid.”
All of the calls were made during the past six months from pay phones outside Wal-Mart at 100 East Street Road in Warminster. Police said 30-year-old Robert Smith III of the 2400 block of North Colorado Street, Philadelphia, began working at the store in July, when the first of the false emergency calls was made.
Officers who had been watching the phones arrested him after he made two calls to 911 at about 10:40 p.m. Wednesday, police said.
Springfield said Smith confessed to making 12 calls, but more had been made. In each instance, he said, the caller either said an officer was down, an officer was shot or hung up without speaking. On Wednesday, he said, Smith hung up the first time without speaking and said, “There was a shooting at Wal-Mart,” during the second call.
According to court documents, police conducting the stakeout saw Smith lingering near the pay phones at about 10:25 p.m. They said he put his sweatshirt hood up, scanned the parking lot, spoke to a Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority driver, and went into the store. He returned to the pay phones moments later, and at about 10:40 p.m., called 911 and hung up on the operator, they said.
Smith then walked to the adjacent pay phone, called 911 again and reported that there had been a shooting at the Wal-Mart before hanging up again, according to police. Police said he smiled and approached the bus, which was pulling up to the bus stop.
After Bucks County police dispatchers told Warminster police about the calls, the officers took Smith into custody, police said. He was charged with 12 counts each of false alarms to agencies of public safety, false reports to law enforcement authorities, recklessly endangering another person, harassment and disorderly conduct.