When Good Machines Go Bad 0

Apparently, this is some kind of automated alert device:

The Palo Alto Police Department on Wednesday asked the Federal Communications Commission to investigate a mobile device that flooded the city’s emergency communications center with 566 calls over a five-hour period in January, according to a police official.

“I asked (the FCC) to open an investigation … on the problems this device was creating,” said Charles Cullen, technical services director for the Palo Alto Police Department. “And that’s where they have jurisdiction, because it’s a mobile device.”

The phantom calls started pouring into the city’s emergency communications center the night of Jan. 13 and continued into the early morning hours of Jan. 14. Cullen said it appears the device was in a Mercedes-Benz and is also likely responsible for flooding the California Highway Patrol’s Vallejo dispatch center with 2,225 calls over a roughly 21-hour period between Jan. 25 and 26.

In both cases, it comes out to over 100 calls per hour, indicating a redial after each disconnect.