A prolific contributor to Rochester’s tally of false 911 calls has been arrested, and is facing substantial prison time.
Department Arson Investigators have arrested 52-year-old Michael King of Rochester, and charged him with 37 counts of falsely reporting an incident. King allegedly began his string of fake 911 calls in the Jefferson Avenue and Brown Street neighborhoods nearly two years ago. He reported fires, gas leaks, dead bodies, home invasions — you name it, and King likely reported it. His calls prompted 37 police, fire and ambulance responses.
He allegedly used numerous “burner” cell phones to conceal his identity. Numerous phones were recovered when investigators wit a search warrant visited his home at 32 Jefferson Avenue on Wednesday.
Rochester’s 911 Center estimates it gets hundreds or even thousands of malicious calls each year, keeping personnel and equipment from actual emergencies.