User blog:Raidra/Attack of the Brainless Hoaxers

I live in the city of Trotwood, Ohio, which is in Montgomery County and just outside the city limits of Dayton. On the local news broadcast last night (October 28) they reported that a man in Dayton had called 911 (the U.S. emergency number) claiming that his brother had been to Liberia and was experiencing Ebola symptoms. Police officers (wearing dust masks and surgical gloves) and a hazmat team (in full hazmat gear) went to the house in question. On the local news broadcast this afternoon (October 29), it was revealed that it was just a prank. You read that right. This guy called emergency services and falsely claimed that someone might have Ebola as a prank. What the blazes, man!? It’s a terrible thing to prank-call 911 anyway! What kind of person thinks, “Hey, people are panicked about this epidemic that’s killed thousands of people in Africa; I bet it would be a giggle to claim that there’s an infected person at my house!” I’m tired of people doing stupid things like this and trying to excuse it with, “It was just a joke!”  Yeah, well, tell that to the taxpayers! You know that there’s probably some schmuck holed up in a safe-room right now because he or she didn’t get the update that it was a prank.

Sadly this isn’t the first time there’s been an Ebola hoax in Ohio. A few weeks ago a woman in northern Ohio called 911 falsely claiming that she’d been in Africa and was now experiencing Ebola-like symptoms. I’ve heard two different explanations for why she did this. One source claimed that she was trying to get faster medical attention (for whatever reason) and another claimed she was hoping to get prescription painkillers. ~shrugs and looks aggravated while the theme from Curb Your Enthusiasm plays in the background~