You are all alone in your apartment, all your friends and family are either busy or evading you and you are feeling lonely, what do you do? Call and report emergency over and over again, of course! At least that is what Pennsylvania man Gregory L Shaffer did.
According to Tribe Live, 52-year-old Shaffer repeatedly called 911 to report fake emergencies, but later admitted to the first responders that he had called because "he was lonely". Shaffer first called 911 on 30 July around 4:20pm and claimed that he had fallen down the stairs, injuring his head and neck, and that he needed assistance, reported Officer Joseph Lewis.
The Pennsylvania man was intoxicated and waiting for them, when the emergency technicians reached his home in Ironwood Drive.
Officer Lewis asked Shaffer if he wanted to harm himself or others, to which Shaffer replied he did not. "He said he just wants someone to talk to because he is lonely. (Shaffer) informed me that he lied, so the paramedics would show up," Lewis wrote.
The emergency personnel, explaining that people are permitted to call 911 only during emergencies, handed him numbers for local crisis hotlines.
However, the lonely man called the Westmoreland County Emergency Management again two hours later, only to have his call transferred to the police. Shaffer admitted to the police that he called out of loneliness and was warned again not to call 911, if there was no emergency.
Around 8:34pm, Shaffer called 911 for a third time, saying he wanted to be taken to a hospital emergency room.
Shaffer was arraigned before Harrison City District Judge Helen Kistler and ordered to the county prison after failing to post $75,000 bond. The online court records did not list an attorney for him.
The "lonely man" is currently in the county jail and faces a preliminary hearing on 23 September.
