Police to charge teens over unfounded 911 calls

NILES — Police said they will file felony charges against two 16-year-old brothers suspected of making 566 unfounded 911 calls, most of them within a three-day period.

Capt. Ken Criswell said police were able to trace the calls to a pair of cell phones used by the two boys, who live in Buckeye Trailer Park just across U.S. Route 422 from the Eastwood Mall.

Police spoke with the boys and their father and expect to file numerous counts of disrupting public services, a felony 4, against the pair by the end of the week.

All but nine of the calls came between Sept. 4 and 6 with 301 of them within a five-hour time span on Sept. 6 alone, Criswell said.

The callers never falsely reported any emergency, and, during most of the calls, actually said nothing.

They did begin to talk some during later calls and were lectured about tying up the emergency 911 line that serves Niles, Weathersfield Township and McDonald Village, Criswell said. However, the calls continued, he said.

Police were eventually able to trace the calls to the boys’ cell phones and confronted them late Sept. 6. The calls were being made while their father was at work, Criswell said.

The two boys are students in the Howland school system, he said.