Calling In False Alarms to the Coast Guard is Expensive and Wrong

[ollie]

Gene Mueller (Contact)
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Who hasn't seen newspaper or television reports of U.S. Coast Guard vessels rescuing passengers and crews of sinking fishing boats or cruise liners that experienced some type of emergency? The Coast Guard has responded to requests for help for more than 200 years. All distress calls are answered as fast as possible, but what happens to people who play a hoax with a marine radio or cell phone? It's no different than kids pulling a fire alarm in an apartment building, running away and thinking it's funny when, of course, it never is.
During this busy boating season, a false distress call might divert a Coast Guard boat from answering a real emergency.
A few years ago, a U.S. District Judge in western Washington state sentenced a 31-year-old resident of Aberdeen to 12 months and one day imprisonment to be followed by three years of supervised release for one count of communicating a false distress message to the Coast Guard. James Garrett Baldwin also was ordered to pay $194,587 in restitution to the Coast Guard. Obviously, answering a distress call isn't cheap.
Then came the Coast Guard Investigative Services, which worked with the Federal Communications Commission and the Northern California U.S. Attorney's office to end a three-year hoax-calling spree by a Salinas, Calif., sicko who was eventually sentenced to two years imprisonment and ordered to pay a $29,000 reimbursement to the Coast Guard.
What about the 49-year-old Selmer, Tenn., woman who pleaded guilty in 2004 in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids, Mich., to various charges, including making a false distress call to the Coast Guard? She was sentenced to two years in a federal prison and was ordered to pay $56,958.30 in restitution to the Coast Guard.
The point I'm making here is that a legitimate call for help will be answered free of charge, but hoax calls can land you in a heap of trouble. The U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary Public Affairs office reminds us that willfully communicating a false distress calls is a federal felony. Penalties can include up to six years in prison, $250,000 fine, $5,000 civil penalty and the possible reimbursement to the Coast Guard for the cost of performing the search.

Gene Mueller
c@washingtontimes.com

[Bluehawk]

Why anyone would do that is beyond my comprehension...

[Woodmonkey]

They have too much time on their hands and no life to speak of, Blue. Seems like the guy who called in so many false alarms should have gotten a stiffer sentence.