People will try just about anything to get out of a speeding ticket, up to and including calling 911 to report a fake murder while the officer is distracted in the hopes that he’ll ditch your silly little traffic stop to go help out, apparently.
When I say people, I mean Julius Lupowitz, because I can’t think of anyone else who’s done this. There was the guy from a few weeks ago (also from Florida)who did a similar thing while trying to hide, but Lupowitz wasn’t running, he was making the calls from his stationary car.
Lupowitz is heard in the call saying there was a man with a gun and that someone was going to get shot and then the call is disconnected.
“I see there’s a murder that’s going to happen, I swear, on Wingate, on Wingate. No, Wingate and Wickham. No, on Wingate and Hollywood, Wingate and Hollywood,” the man said in the call to 911. “I swear there’s going to be a murder any second. I swear there’s a man with a gun. Please, I just called, it’s Wingate and Hollywood.”
The 911 operator received a second call from the same man, telling the same story. As the operator probed the caller for more information, he again disconnected the line.
A quick-thinking Brevard County Sheriff’s Office dispatcher did a search for prior incidents associated with the telephone number the 911 calls came from to find the phone belonged to Lupowitz. West Melbourne Police Officer Ted Salem was on the traffic stop when the 911 calls were received.
So now, instead of the $209 ticket he was getting, he’s facing a third-degree felony charge for misuse of the 911 system that could land him in jail for up to five years…and the ticket.
Bail was set at $2,000. Given how odd some of the bail amounts are, I’m surprised they didn’t go ahead and set it at $2209 so he could get that speeding thing taken care of.