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A Tragic crime in an upscale neighborhood ends with two men dead and neighbors …
Updated: Friday, 21 Nov 2008, 11:03 AM EST
Published : Thursday, 20 Nov 2008, 4:58 PM EST
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - Metro police have arrested a man who's accused of putting the lives of police, firefighters and a neighborhood at risk. The arrest ends more than two decades of phony 911 calls.
Police arrested 37-year-old Ricky Jones around 12:30 Thursday afternoon in the 3200 of East 34th Street. Investigators said he routinely made fake 911 calls.
"Typically he calls in sensationalized runs, house fires with kids trapped inside. He'll call in police officers who have been shot or a motorcycle officer down," Lieutenant Scott Robinett of the IMPD Arson Investigations.
According to the probable cause affidavit, Jones made a bogus 911 call last month which sent 33 firefighters and 11 fire trucks to an address that didn't even exist. The calls cost the city thousands of dollars. Jones denies the accusations.
"I don't have a clue. I don't know what's been going on, man," said Jones.
But investigators are confident they finally caught a longtime prankster.
"He was known to have hung out at a fire stations like many kids do and he was suspected of calling in false alarms as far back as 23 years ago when he was 14 years old," said Lt. Robinett.
Police said right now they can only charge Jones with four counts of false reporting. But they believe he could be responsible for hundreds of prank 911 calls. He's being held on $150,000 bond.
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