Arrested for harassing emergency switchboard with 2,761 calls due to... loneliness

Keep calling the emergency hotline because...so sad

Hiroko Hatagami, 51, unemployed and living in Matsudo City (Chiba Prefecture), was arrested on July 13 on suspicion of obstructing the activities of the local fire department.

Chiba Prefectural Police allege that Ms. Hatagami repeatedly called the emergency number, which was made from her home and other places in her neighborhood.

The Mainichi newspaper reported that some of the calls mentioned health problems that she made up, such as severe stomach pain, drug overdose, and leg pain.

From August 2020 to May 2023, she frequently requested the Matsudo Fire Department to dispatch an ambulance. However, when the ambulance arrived, she refused to undergo a medical examination or insisted that she had not made the call.

Both the fire department and the police department warned Ms. Hatagami to stop the harassing calls, but she continued the behavior whenever she felt... lonely.

Finally, this woman was arrested after a long time of "persisting" in calling the emergency hotline.

At the police station, Ms. Hatagami admitted her actions.

This is not the first time someone has been arrested in Japan for making thousands of calls to emergency services.

In 2013, a woman was jailed after making more than 15,000 calls in six months. On one day, she made 927 calls. Police had to visit her home about 60 times before deciding to arrest her.

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