Re: Fixed Mount VHF Marine Radios On Shore
For readers who think you can screw around with your VHF Marine Band radio with impunity, a little story of Frederico C. Flores:
Frederico C. Flores, a 22-year-old man who lives in Toledo, amused himself for 25-hours by making false distress calls on a hand-held VHF Marine Band radio, causing local U.S. Coast Guard stations to initiate a search for what they believed was a vessel in distress.
Around 9 PM on March 11, 2009, Flores contacted USCG Station Detroit via radio and claimed that he was in a vessel on the Maumee River near the Toledo High Level Bridge, that there were four people aboard, that the vessel was sinking, and that two of the people aboard were already in the water. In response the USCG sent an air rescue unit from Detroit and boat crews from Toledo and Marblehead (Ohio) to search. Flores continued to transmit false distress signals until 10 PM on March 12, 2009. Flores later admitted he knew what he was doing was wrong and said he was just "playing a game."
The USCG Investigative Service, in cooperation with the Federal Communications Commission, determined the source and location of the transmissions as an apartment building at 5533 Lewis Avenue in Toledo, which led to the arrest of Flores.
On April 2, 2009, the United States Attorney filed a criminal indictment against Flores, charging him with communicating false distress messages to the United States Coast Guard.
On June 29, 2009, Flores pleaded guilty to making false distress calls.
On November 23, 2009, in the United States District Court for the Northern district of Ohio, Flores was sentenced by Judge James Carr to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay $112,735 in restitution to the United States Coast Guard.