Maryland state troopers have arrested a New York man on charges of telephone misuse, false reports of crimes and telephone harassment following a series of phone calls to police agencies.
Bobby Collins, 31, of Brooklyn, N.Y., was arrested Sunday morning in Baltimore City shortly after he called the Baltimore City Police Department to make a false report of a crime.
In late March, Collins began repeatedly calling different law enforcement agencies in Maryland and making abusive and rude comments to the call-takers. He demanded to talk to police officers then threatened the police officers, with bodily harm, according to state police.
On April 2, Collins called the Howard County 911 Center, claiming he had just seen a trooper get shot onInterstate 95 near Route 175 ? the same intersection where Cpl. Theodore D. Wolf Sr. was killed March 29, 1980.
The call was determined to be a hoax.
“This was very unnerving for those of us who were working the night Trooper Wolf was killed,” said Maryland State Police First Sgt. Russell Newell. “He was just being vicious.”
Newell said Collins repeated the hoax in two other Maryland jurisdictions.
Between March 29 and April 2, Collins placed 84 calls to 911 centers in Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey and New York. He also called the Baltimore City 911 Center 253 times between March 31 and April 22, according to state police.
“These are the phone calls that we know of,” Newell said. “Once this gets reported, and other police departments in other states realize this, we have no idea who many people he might have called.”
Collins is being held at the Baltimore County Detention Center on a $150,000 bond.
Warrants for his arrest have been filed in three other Maryland jurisdictions.
