Fake 9-1-1 Call Used Again in Ploy to Rob NYC Medics
By Thomas Tracy
Source New York Daily News
Two FDNY emergency medical technicians were robbed at gunpoint after racing to a bogus medical emergency in a Brooklyn public housing building early Saturday.
The 2:40 a.m. heist was the second time in a week that EMTs have been held up in Brooklyn during a fake 9-1-1 call, authorities said.
The EMTs, ages 25 and 23, were responding to a report of a seizure patient in an apartment on Frost St. near Morgan Ave. — part of the Cooper Park Houses in East Williamsburg — when they were accosted, police said.
They were getting out of an elevator when a hulking 6-foot-2 man pulled a gun on them, cops said.
“Give me your radios and bags,” the gunman ordered, according to police.
The EMTs handed over the equipment and the creep hit buttons for every floor on the elevator before jumping out, preventing the first responders from following him.
The pair continued on to their call on the sixth floor and found nothing.
“This was a bogus call and there was no patient,” an FDNY source said. “Thankfully, these EMTs were not injured.”
The crime was virtually identical to the robbery of two Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center EMTs on Dec. 7.
Those EMTs were on their way to treat someone with difficulty breathing inside the Seth Low Houses in Brownsville when a man riding the elevator with them hit the emergency stop button, pulled out a gun and demanded their bags and radios. The call they were responding to was also a fake.
Their medical bags were found in the building a short time later, but their radios and tablets were gone, authorities said.
Since Monday, the FDNY has told its employees to be on guard and practice “situational awareness” when responding to 9-1-1 calls.
“It’s despicable that anyone would use 911 for a fake medical call, threaten the lives of EMTs, and steal the tools they use to save lives,” FDNY Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said Saturday.
“EMTs and paramedics have one mission — respond to help New Yorkers in need of emergency medical care. They are essential to our city. When apprehended, those responsible for these crimes should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
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