911: Plymouth Eight-Year-Old Needs Help

The child responsible for making more than 100 prank 911 calls in Sheboygan County has been tracked down.

She's an eight-year-old girl from Plymouth.

Her activities have made news around the country. Her story was picked up by AP and UPI. Drudge has linked to the story.

She's a famous little kid.

From The Sheboygan Press:

An 8-year-old Plymouth girl using her mother's discarded cell phone is the culprit who made more than 100 prank 911 calls last week to the Sheboygan County Sheriff's Department, Lt. Jim Risseeuw said Monday.

Because of her age, the girl won't be charged or referred to juvenile authorities, Risseeuw said.

"At this point, the matter was corrected," Risseeuw said. "We'll leave it for the parents to deal with."

Investigators confiscated the cell phone at about 10 p.m. Saturday to positively identify it as the phone used to make the prank calls, he said.

AT&T and TracFone searched their records to assist the sheriff's department in tracking the phone number to its owner Saturday, Risseeuw said. The girl's parents were unaware that she was making the calls, he said.

...The girl, who identified herself to dispatchers as "Matthew" when she made the calls, also made prank 911 calls to the sheriff's department Friday. The Plymouth Joint School District confirmed the girl was home sick that day, Risseeuw said.

Risseeuw said the girl used profane language in some of the calls.

"She was swearing," Risseeuw said. "In some cases, she would initially state like there was a fire at the house or one case, someone had been stabbed, that type of thing. She would back off of that story and go into prankster type behavior."

She's a real sweetheart, isn't she?

And what's her punishment for tying up the 911 system in Sheboygan County with over 100 prank calls?

Her parents have grounded her for a whopping one month!

Wow.

The imp's barely getting a slap on the wrist from her limp-wristed parents.

For causing all that trouble, the little darling will be grounded for four weeks.

What do you think the odds are that the parents will be willing or able to enforce the girl's sentence?

I would say they're very slim.

If they aren't able to supervise her while she's making 100 calls, how will they ever succeed in grounding her?

And what good will that do if they can pull it off? Will that punishment turn her around?

This kid is a mess. A third-grader knows that 911 is for emergencies and serious business.

...Two sheriff's department dispatchers are on duty at all times, who handle dispatch and 911 calls for Sheboygan County, except for the City of Sheboygan. All calls are taken seriously and prank calls take time for dispatchers to answer when they could be handling real emergencies, said Bill Bruckbauer, the department's director of operations.

"Obviously, we're glad the case came to a successful conclusion," Bruckbauer said. "Anytime that you have people tying up 911 lines on a prank, obviously they're putting people with true emergencies in danger because we can't answer the call."

No kidding.

This girl's behavior could have meant the difference in a life and death situation.

I don't think being grounded for a month is anywhere near an appropriate punishment.

According to Milwaukee's NBC affiliate:

TODAY'S TMJ4 reporter Charles Benson stopped by the family's home Monday. The mother and little girl did not want to talk, but the girl's 17-year-old sister did discuss the prank calls. She told TODAY'S TMJ4 they didn't know the girl was making the calls.

"No, not until the cops showed up," she said.

Mom gave the cell phone to her daughter as gift, and if she was really good she was going to activate the phone so she could call her father once in awhile.

"Really good"?

It's hard for me to believe that this child could be "really good." Over 100 prank 911 calls, swearing, making false reports of fires and stabbings -- that's not a good record.

I doubt that she's a model little girl and just went astray on this phone matter.

Heavy breathing, fake crying and reporting phony fires are just some of the dangerous games officials say the 8-year-old played on the old cell phone.

"It was very time-consuming and frustrating for our people here," Lt. James Risseeuw with the Sheboygan Sheriff's Department told TODAY'S TMJ4 reporter Jonathan Vigliotti.

Emergency dispatchers spent hours listening as the child tied up the lines with lies. Her parents were in the same room during several of the calls but did not realize what was going on.

"The girl's mother indicated that when she did see the child use the phone she thought she was playing or role-playing and did not think she was dialing 911," said Risseeuw.

There is so much that's wrong here.

The parents are beyond clueless. They border on negligent. The child was receiving inadequate supervision.

When she saw her daughter on the phone, the mother should have talked to her about the weird role-playing if that's what she thought was going on.

Moreover, how brazen is this kid to be placing these prank calls with her parents in the same room?

Why would the parents be allowed to handle the matter?

They're in need of assistance.


I'd think the child would be required to undergo some counseling, and the parents as well.

Some big changes need to made in that home.

This isn't a private family matter. The calls posed a serious threat to the safety of the community.

What hope is there that her parents will take the proper steps to get their daughter on the right track?

Very little.

I suspect this eight-year-old threat to society is only going to be more of a problem as she grows older.
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From TODAY'S TMJ4, listen to some of the 911 calls.