Pranksters Harass Couple in NYC For Two Years With 911 Calls

Pranksters Harass Couple in NYC For Two Years With 911 Calls

Prank callers victimize a couple in NYC, faking 911 calls 155 times in two years.

It might have been funny the first couple of times, but unidentified 911 emergency prank-callers have allegedly prank-called a Muslim couple in New York City 155 times over the course of two years. For those of you trying to figure the math in your head, that’s one fake emergency call to the Fire Department or Police Department about every five days for two years. Aside from frustration and headaches suffered by both the victims of these prank calls and for the FDNY and the NYPD, that’s a lot of wasted tax-funded manpower over the course of two years that could have been potentially responding to real emergencies.

Mamedou and Assetou Sy, a Muslim couple living in NYC, have been receiving emergency responders so frequently that Mrs. Sy told The New York Daily News, "Every time someone knocks on our door, we say it must be the police, and usually it is.” However, the Sys don’t believe that the callers are anti-Muslim. The calls come day and night, sometimes twice in a single day, but don’t seem to have any particular viciousness, or even an agenda. The FDNY, who have received the lion’s share of the prank emergency calls, have arrived dozens of times to put out stove fires. Likewise, the NYPD has been called, though less often than the fire department, to alleged gunfire in the apartment. The Sys adamantly deny shooting at one another.

Astonishingly, neither emergency response department has been able to identify the callers. Because of that, obviously, the calls continue to roll in once, twice, or even three times a week. It surprises me that, given the technology that was specifically developed for law enforcement to identify and trace calls, that these pranksters have not yet been brought to justice. Fake emergency calls are a misdemeanor, but after 155 of them you’d think the NYPD would throw up it’s hands and say “enough is enough”. Given the frequency of the calls, it might also be beneficial for the various departments to simply work out a system of, say, calling the Sys and check to see if there’s actually an emergency?

Perhaps the most disturbing thing about this story is that someone (or someones) are continuing to pester this poor family and waste tax dollars and valuable manpower in a city that surely has enough real emergencies to fill their day. I can understand a prank call, or even three, but 155 points to either a serious abundance of leisure time or a serious lack of creativity.