Man places fake 911 call to get out of traffic stop

A routine traffic stop ended with an arrest after a Florida man allegedly called 911 with a fake emergency to prevent an officer from discovering he'd been driving without a licence.

At around 1 a.m. Tuesday, an officer in southern Florida's Collier County pulled over a car that had been driving about 25 kilometres over the speed limit.

The driver said he'd left his licence at home, police said.

While the officer was running the man's information through the police data systems, he heard a report of a shooting with "one subject on the ground" at a bar in North Naples, Fla.

The officer decided to respond to the shooting and sent the driver on his way.

Upon arriving at the bar, the officer was told by his supervisor that there had been no shooting, and immediately suspected that the 911 call had been a fake, police said.

The officer tracked the 911 call to a North Carolina cellphone which he called and received the driver's voicemail. He then listened to the 911 call and recognized the driver's voice.

About an hour and a half after the initial traffic stop, the officer went to the driver's home and arrested him.

Jonathan Paul Rorech, 31, was charged with making a false 911 call and two misdemeanor counts of driving on a suspended licence.

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