(WSVN) - Imagine this: police are at your door telling you they got a call you were selling guns out of your house, or the next day you are bringing young children into the house. Day after day, phony 911 calls. As Patrick Fraser reveals, it’s what one South Florida family has been facing for months.
When Diego was younger, he admits it: he hung with a tough crowd.
Diego Ayala, victim of false 911 calls: “Because I used to hang around with people that weren’t right, and not legit people, man.”
Of course, like most people, Diego grew up and straightened up.
Diego Ayala: “I do now, I do now to stay out of trouble.”
Then trouble returned, with a knock at the door.
Diego Ayala: “I opened the door, and police were there. They were saying that they were getting phone calls saying that there were minors coming into the house, and I was like, ‘Oh, what the hell?'”
That was the beginning.
Diego Ayala: “It’s just uncomfortable. It’s uncomfortable.”
The 911 calls sending police to the house kept coming in.
Diego Ayala: “It was a different claim, that I was being noisy outside of the house, and the music was loud, and there was no music.”
Each anonymous call came from the same woman.
After accusing Diego of everything from enticing children into his home to selling drugs, the crook then targeted Diego’s family.
Reina Finchun, Diego’s mother: “The two detectives came in, saying that my son was buying arms and I was selling them, and I was being investigated. It’s very scary.”
By the time Diego called us, there had been 11 calls to 911 operators.
Reina Finchun: “Another time that my son has overdosed. Another time that he was being violent, and then the last one, that we’re selling arms.”
Miami-Dade Police detective Jacob George: “We definitely want people to know that this is very much a crime.”
The crook hopes the calls are creating chaos. The police know the calls are creating danger.
Miami-Dade Police detective Jacob George: “There’s always families in need who need our services and genuinely do need that, so every time a bogus call is made, you’re exhausting those resources from that family in need.”
Diego has no idea who is doing this to him, but if you listen closely, it appears the woman making the calls is being coached.
Diego Ayala: “When the operator was asking for information, she was like stuttering and kind of like saying — you can tell that there was somebody telling her what to say.”
Whoever was coaching the woman knows Diego well.
Reina Finchun: “They mentioned the medication that he was taking 15 years ago.”
Diego says he has no idea why someone from his past would do this to him, but if they’re trying to upend his family’s life, he says, they are succeeding.
Reina Finchun: “This person is so sick to be making up all these phone calls and putting our lives in turmoil.”
If law enforcement has their way, the person creating the turmoil’s next call will be for help to bail out of jail.
Miami-Dade Police detective Jacob George: “We’re now working directly with the Homeland Security Bureau Cyber Crime Center, so we’re working hand in hand with them to to solve this and bring this family to peace.”
Peace from the 911 calls.
Diego Ayala: “If you were getting phone calls, and police officers were coming to your house saying that you were doing absurd things, you’d be scared, right? I’m scared.”
Scared, and they don’t even know who to be scared of.
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