The message from the U.S. Coast Guard this summer: knock it off.
They say they have seen a rise in the number of fake distress calls, with some of the calls, impossible to detect as hoaxes.
“It’s a risk every time you go out on the water, so it’s putting our Coast Guard personnel at risk,” said Brian McCrum, U.S. Coast Guard. “It’s also taking up assets that could be used for other real search and rescue cases.
McCrum said more than 160 fake distress calls have already come in across all the Great Lakes this year, compared to 55 last year.
The calls cost taxpayers’ money.
Each boat costs about $4500 per hour to respond and each helicopter is about $16,000. It can take up to 3 hours before the Coast Guard determines a call was a hoax and calls off a search.
CLICK HERE to read story
source: Wkyc.com
LOCAL NEWS: Coast Guard Seeing A Rise In Crank Phone Calls was originally published on praisecleveland.com
