Coast Guard posts audio clip of fake distress call

Posted to: Crime Military News North Carolina
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By Lauren Roth
The Virginian-Pilot
© July 13, 2010

NEW BERN, N.C.

The Coast Guard is seeking the public's help in identifying an individual who said he made a fake distress call.

Watchstanders in North Carolina overheard one man boasting to another on marine VHF radio that he called "Mayday. Mayday. Ship going down," without having a real emergency.

The other man replied "Dude. That's illegal, man."

The 36-second clip is posted at http://bit.ly/cOlcZA.

According to the Coast Guard, making a false distress call is a felony with a maximum penalty of five to 10 years in prison, a $5,000 civil fine, a $250,000 criminal fine and reimbursement to the Coast Guard.

If anyone can identify either voice in the audio clip, call the Coast Guard at (252) 247-4571.

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Serving in the Coast Guard

Submitted by got the answer on Thu, 07/15/2010 at 1:36 pm.

Serving in the Coast Guard for 20 years. This is a problem through out the country, as the majority of the population does not realize how much this goes on. Once a call is made, the Coast Guard must commence a search. The search is continued until a decision is made that it should be suspeneded pending further developements. This probably will not occur until the follow day at the least. Small boat, aircraft, and cutters all may be involved burning up your tax dollars, and taking away assets for other missions. So basically, people who make false distress cases are stealing your safety and the safety of others. You also have habitual offenders whom make numerous calls a year. knowing this you would think that this is the same person and nothing would happen. Wrong, you go out a search. It is my opinion that ALL VH-FM Radios should have a GPS transmitter of CH-FM CH 16 (only this channel) So once you key the mike, your GPS position is known. This will eleminate this sort of thing. Also, all radios should have to be registred on a yearly basis, or like a cell phone, it will no longer work. In my opinion the registration is nothing more than an administrative function, no cost should