Bad joke!

88 helpers wasted time on a fake mission

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(Bild: rubra/Symbolbild)

When there is an emergency, emergency services rush to the scene and often save lives. On the first Sunday in Advent, this operational readiness was mercilessly exploited.

Sunday, 7.30 pm: An emergency call is received. A person is said to have jumped into the water from the Stadtdraubrücke bridge in Villach! "The patrol crews searched the shore area and boats from the fire department and water rescue service searched the water area for the person who had supposedly jumped into the Drau. The Libelle police helicopter was also requested," said the police, describing the search operation, in which a total of 88 emergency services helped.

Caller no longer answered the phone
Meanwhile, investigators tried to trace the emergency call back to the caller, but "the caller could no longer be reached and the name stored with the rescue control center could not be used," the officers continued. So the police had a master data query carried out for the number used via the regional criminal investigation department - this initially led to a 36-year-old woman from Villach.

However, it turned out that the woman had given her cell phone to a 15-year-old runaway: "The 15-year-old notorious runaway probably made the emergency call to the rescue control center with a probability bordering on certainty of a fictitious operation," the emergency services explain why the search operation was called off after an hour. "The 15-year-old was found, but denies having made the call." She had given her cell phone to a boy she didn't know so that he could call a friend, she explained.

Are deployment costs being charged?
88 helpers from various blue-light organizations wasted their time because of the prank call in Villach and were unable to help anyone else for the duration of the operation: "It is not yet known whether and to what extent the costs of the operation will be charged," according to the provincial police directorate. The investigation is ongoing.