Manchester Man Charged With Making False Emergency Calls: Police

MANCHESTER, NJ — A Manchester Township man is accused of creating a false public alarm, after he had used a phone number spoofing app to send multiple emergency calls to another address in the township, police said Sunday.

Michael A. Woehrle, 29, of Martin Drive, has been charged with four counts of creating a false public alarm, Manchester Lt. Vincent Manco said.

Manco said police were called to a Mockingbird Way home on Saturday by an anonymous tipster who reported drug activity at the home. The investigation found there was no drug activity going on but police were told there had been multiple commercial companies called to the home. A pizza delivery service, taxi service, and the electric and gas companies. The residents of the home had not called any of the services.

Police then received multiple emergency services calls to the Mockingbird Way house. One reported a brush fire, two reported stabbings in progress and another reported a structure fire. All were determined to be false, Manco said.

Investigators were able to use information from the multitude of false phone calls reporting the emergencies to trace the phone numbers to a caller identification spoofing app, Manco said.

The app allows users to change their phone number to any number they choose. Investigators worked with the app’s security division to get information that led them to Woehrle's home on Martin Drive, which is in the Pine Ridge development, he said.

Woehrle is being held at the Ocean County Jail awaiting a detention hearing.

Have a news tip? Email karen.wall@patch.com Follow Manchester Patch on Facebook.