Holly MatkinYoungstown, OH – An Ohio couple was arrested on indecent exposure charges after mistakenly butt-dialing police while they were having sex near a busy roadway last week.
Youngstown police said they received a 911 call on the afternoon of May 28 that led them to an area near a highway in Youngstown, The Charlotte Observer reported.
When an officer arrived in the area from where the call was placed, he heard noises on a nearby hill and went over on foot to investigate the source.
That’s when he stumbled upon a woman and a man having sex beside a tree near the roadway, the Charlotte Observer reported.
“The area where the two chose to engage in the sexual festivities was completely visible to all of the vehicles passing by,” according to the Youngstown Police Department (YPD).
When the officer announced himself, the couple, who were both in their late 30s, quickly got dressed, The Charlotte Observer reported.
Investigators determined the man’s cell phone dialed 911 without his knowledge while it was in emergency mode.
The officer ultimately charged the couple with public indecency, The Charlotte Observer reported.
This wasn’t the only recent incident in which someone called 911 by accident and wound up with criminal charges.
Two North Carolina thieves were busted by police just weeks earlier after one of them mistakenly “butt dialed” 911 in the middle of their heist.
The incident occurred at about at a construction company located at 4324 Phil Hargett Court at approximately 3:30 a.m. on May 17, the Monroe Police Department (MPD) said in a Facebook post.
Police said two suspects, Jeffrey Bird and Maxwell Howard, were rummaging through metal when one of them mistakenly dialed 911, WNCT reported.
“Dispatchers originally thought the caller was in distress, but quickly realized two people were simply discussing what items were best to steal and which items would be most useful for them to take,” the MPD said.
The dispatchers listened to Bird and Howard for several minutes while officers responded to the scene, WNCT reported.
“They were talking [about] what to pick up,” MPD Lieutenant Steve Morton told the news outlet. “‘We’re going to get that, make sure you’re going to pick that up, we need that one’ [and so forth].”
The dispatchers even heard one of the suspects telling the other than he could see the police coming, according to the MPD.
Bird took off running, but was still unknowingly on the phone with 911, WNCT reported.
He was subsequently arrested.
Howard was apprehended at the scene and has been charged with felony larceny and possession of methamphetamine.
Bird also had an active warrant for felony larceny, according to the MPD.
Lt. Morton said the case was almost too strange to be real.
“You have to read it again because you don’t believe it,” he said of the police report.
Police said they recovered an estimated $12,000 in stolen property during the course of the investigation.
“Note to self,” the MPD said in its post about the botched heist. “Don’t call 911 while committing crime.”
One of the two suspects eventually asked police to remove the post because it was so “embarrassing,” according to WNCT.
The MPD declined to take it down.
