After making numerous fake 911 calls over a week and a half, a Brunswick man is facing charges, according to the Frederick Police Department.
Bryan Paul Blanchard, 20, told officers "he just needed someone to talk to" when he called 911 and left the phone off the hook, police said.
Between 3:30 and 4:30 a.m. Thursday, Officer First Class Robert Pierce states in charging documents that he responded to fake 911 calls in the area of West Seventh and North East streets and Opossumtown Pike.
"Once we would arrive ... all we would find is the pay phone off the hook," Pierce wrote in charging documents.
Pierce, along with officers first class Doug Stephenson and Kevin Myers, decided to do surveillance in several areas where the calls had been placed.
Pierce was positioned in a parking lot across from the Fairview Shopping Center. The pay phone by the Frederick Town Cleaners had been used several times for the fake 911 calls.
Shortly after 4:45 a.m. Thursday, Pierce saw a 2001 gold Toyota drive into the center's parking lot and park at the cleaners, the documents state. Pierce saw Blanchard "go to the pay phone, pick up the receiver, then drop it and run back to his vehicle."
Pierce confirmed with dispatchers that they had just received a 911 call from the pay phone, the documents state. After following the car as it left, Pierce initiated a traffic stop at Fairview Avenue and West Ninth Street.
The seven-year veteran of the department told Blanchard he saw him on the pay phone, the documents state.
"He confessed to calling 911 earlier at the Citgo on North East Street," Pierce wrote.
Dispatchers always attempt a follow-up call when some hangs up or no one responds on the other end of the line, said Chip Jewell, director for Frederick County Emergency Communications. They also send a police officer out to check.
Sometimes calls are made by accident or by a child playing with the phone, Jewell said. But there are legitimate calls when noises can be heard in the background but no one is saying anything or very little.
In October 2007, the center received a 911 call made by Pamela Hahn. A dispatcher heard her say "No, Butch, no!" followed by gunshots. Her estranged husband, Charles Hahn, had fatally shot her.
Fake 911 calls keep dispatchers from answering legitimate calls for help, Jewell said.
For each 911 call, two officers are dispatched, said Sgt. Earl Rocca. Fake calls take officers away from other areas in need of patrols.
Police charged Blanchard with two counts of telephone misuse. On each charge he could face a maximum sentence of three years in jail and/or a $500 fine.
He was released on personal recognizance after going before a District Court commissioner, authorities said. An Oct. 22 court date has been set.