Myrtle Beach police have been kept busy lately responding to calls about violent crimes in progress. The problem is the calls aren't real.
They're hoaxes. The caller claims to be from a Myrtle Beach online radio station that airs prank calls on its website.
Over the past few weeks, police say at least a half-dozen calls have come into 911 dispatch, claiming a bank robbery was in progress, or an assault at a hotel.
Officers will respond to the incidents and find nothing. The calls are pranks.
"At the end of the phone calls or in additional phone calls that they might send, they'll say that they're from Friday Night Cranks or different web sites, that it's a hoax," said Myrtle Beach police Capt. David Knipes.
The website Friday Night Cranks says it's based in Myrtle Beach, and their website has a Myrtle Beach post office box. Jared McMullen from Friday Night Cranks told NewsChannel 15 the calls do not originate from his web site or anyone associated with it. McMullen says the calls are "disgusting" and not funny.
Knipes says so far, none of the prank calls to police have been posted on the Friday Night Cranks web site, which means the calls may not be from the site, but just someone claiming to be representing the site.
The hoaxes go all over the country. Last week, a caller claiming to be from the website called Boston, Massachusetts police about a fake assault at a hotel in that city.
"Couple of different times, reporting a domestic incident, one where there allegedly was a knife involved and the suspect potentially being high on drugs," said Boston PD spokesman Officer Eddy Crispin.
Knipes says, chasing after bogus crimes takes officers away from the real ones and causes an uproar at the real banks and hotels targeted in the hoaxes. "When they're talking about people with guns and being raped and different violent crimes, it puts a scare in a lot of people."
Knipes says online pranksters can easily route their calls through other phone numbers to disguise their identity, making it tough, but not impossible, to track them down. "Somebody's going to make a mistake and we're going to find it."
Police in Myrtle Beach and Boston are investigating.
In South Carolina, falsely reporting a felony carries a five-year prison sentence and a $1,000 fine.
