911 Calls From ‘Bored’ Man Lead To Arrest

The emergency number 911 isn’t typically the first number that comes to people’s minds when they’re bored and need to chat, but one Florida man thought that the emergency line could help him when he was apparently dying of boredom.

Michael Gilman, a 28-year-old from DeLand, couldn’t find anything better to do than to call 911 and talk about such subjects like Hitler and the Jews. He didn’t get the hint when the 911 dispatcher told him not to call 911 unless it was an emergency, so he called back at least four more times to ask the dispatcher to kick people out of their homes to “serve and protect.” The man also claimed there was an emergency on Pennsylvania Avenue at the White House, according to Daily News.

Another 911 dispatcher got to hear Gilman complain that he was too poor and couldn’t vote, but that still wasn’t enough to keep the 911 dispatcher from declaring an emergency of a different kind. After he kept hanging up with the 911 dispatcher when he was given a different number to call, the police were sent to his home to see what was going on with the guy.

This was when police overheard Gilman on the phone talking to a 911 dispatcher about Hitler and the Jews, according to the Palm Beach Post.

Gilman knew the police were there at his home to talk to him, but he reportedly hid from them while on the phone with a 911 dispatcher. He either did not use his “inside voice” or did not realize the 911 dispatcher would tell the police what was going on.

The police found Gilman and asked the 911 caller what he was doing, and the restless man simply replied that he was “talking to your dispatcher because I’m bored.” Well, that explains a lot, except why he was calling 911 and abusing emergency services for about five hours.

The police took Gilman in for abusing emergency services, since calling 911 to chat about your personal problems, thoughts, and because you’re bored isn’t quite the emergency Gilman thought it was.

Even though Gilman was taken into custody around 1 a.m. for excessively calling 911 for absolutely no reason whatsoever, he was later released from custody. It is anyone’s guess who he may be calling now.

Abusing the 911 emergency system can result in a first-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Of course, most people who call 911 have a real emergency and need help. A small percentage of people call 911 and are confused, mentally ill, on drugs, or are intoxicated, or are simply “bored.” Those are the calls that can be troublesome for 911 dispatchers.

There have been calls to 911 from people asking dispatchers for help to find their remote controls, to complain that a restaurant didn’t have the type of food they wanted, and even people asking for sex. Most of the time, dispatchers try to handle the calls as politely as possible and educate the people about what is an emergency call and what is not appropriate for a 911 call.

“We generally try to educate people and inform them that their call is not an emergency,” said Jim Leljedal, spokesman for the Broward sheriff’s office. “It’s when we have these outrageous abuses that you have to take action.”

However, if a person calls more than two or three times, an officer will usually be sent out to investigate why the person keeps calling 911 services, according to Jem.

Hopefully the man in Florida realized that 911 calls from bored people are not an emergency after officers responded to talk to him in person about it.

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