A 51-year-old unemployed man has been arrested on suspicion of obstructing police in the performance of their duties after he made 911 nuisance phone calls to a police station in Ueno.
According to police, Hidetoshi Tanabe has admitted to making the calls from his landline and mobile phone between April 15 and July 17, Kyodo News reported. Some of the calls were silent, while at other times, Tanabe said he had killed someone and would turn himself in. He would then call back and say he had lied. In another call, he said he was using illegal drugs and asked police to come and arrest him.
In one day, he made 72 calls, an Ueno police station spokesperson said.
Police quoted Tanabe as saying he made the calls because he was unhappy with how the police station had responded to an inquiry he made some time ago.
© Japan Today
21 Comments
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Lindsay
He should have been calling a mechanic coz he’s definitely got a few screws loose.
virusrex
911 is the number of calls the man did, not the number he dialed. In the description it is clear his calls were to a single police station, that would not happen if he was dialing 110.
Tom San
911 times, that is. Not the emergency number 9-1-1 in the States.
tottenhaminremnants
Suitable number of prank calls to an emergency number in some countries. His kind of humor?
Uehara
Well that many times until he was arrested..
I think I'm hopeless then. My neighbor keep calling the cops to my house because saying my TV is too loud.
I don't have a TV and my work shift coincidentally hits with the times he reported. The cops come and do a "search" in my apartment about 3-5 times a month, sometimes in the same day, the same cops and the same story...
factchecker
Shows again the uselessness of the cops here. 10 should have been enough to realise there's a pest at work here.
lostrune2
Ya should file a counterclaim against harassment and a protection order
WilliB
tottenhaminremnants
Err what? Why is 72 calls "suitable number"?
藤原
911? なにこれ119 is the ambulance, 110 is police, what is 911?
tantanmen4life
911? 爆笑!
Your editor actually published this?
Sid
He should aim for the British record of 999 calls.
AustPaul
This particular charge is called ‘public nuisance’ here, it does happen but you’d hope the caller in this instance would get the message to stop calling after the first 50…
Maybe NHK can block his phone account?
tottenhaminremnants
Willi
he made 911 calls...
Peter Neil
Some factory needs to hire that determined man who’s dedicated to his tasks.
WilliB
I though "911 call" was just English colloquial equivalent to 110 call. Would be strange if the exact number of calls was 911. Unclear writing in the article.
Strangerland
From a Japanese article on the issue:
A man, Tanabe Hiroshi (51), unemployed, was arrested for repeated calls to a police station.
...
The suspect, Tanabe, is accused of obstruction of business by making repeated phone calls to the Ueno police station in Tokyo either saying nothing or making unclear statements.
Link: https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/1a109e1a9c8c9c4b5add27a698007e1979cfb094
There is nothing about the actual number called in the article, however as it is stating that the calls were made to the Ueno police station, and due to it being extremely unlikely that calling 911 in Japan would reach that station, it would seem that the usage of 911 in the article here on Japan Today was a stylistic choice by the author.
JTC
Sounds like this guy needs some attention - perhaps he's just Lonely.
Phycological care and help in Japan is basic if non-existent. And don't quote the "TELL" Lifeline ....
JTC
@Strangerland - I meant, that TELL may be helpful in some cases, but ... not all,
falseflagsteve
What a queer thing to do, maybe he’s mental
Strangerland
TELL Lifeline: 03-5774-0992
Readyfortakeoff
Thank you NPA. The biggest crime story in Tokyo: cranks calls. I wonder what the crime stores are in London and New York???????