Accidental 911 call leads to drug bust

TOWN OF MENASHA, Wis. (WLUK) - Police made a drug bust after an accidental call to 911 - placed by the criminals themselves.

Winnebago County, like many communication centers, is seeing more and more 911 calls from cell phones. Director Kathy Biggar said new technology has made it easier to find out where those cell phone calls are coming from.

"It can locate you pretty much wherever you are," Biggar said.

Case in point: Saturday, Nov. 21. At 7:15 pm, a mysterious call came in. For several minutes, all the dispatcher could here was static, loud music and loud, inaudible talking.

Click here to listen to the 911 call .

Thanks to satellite technology, the dispatcher was able to pinpoint the location of the call. She sent officers to investigate. That's when she heard this:

"Number one, I need some kind of tool to get a hole in my pipe. How 'bout a bobby pin? (inaudible) Number two; I need something to break it up on."

The word pipe tipped her off to drug activity going on. A few minutes later, you can here that officers arrived on the scene. Police found several people inside a car in the parking lot of the Prime Time tavern.

"The occupants initially denied any drug activity or involvement," said officer Jason Weber from the Town of Menasha police department. Weber said officers told the people that someone in the car called 911.

"One of the individuals reached into his pocket and found that his phone was connected to the dispatch center," Weber said.

Inside the car, police found marijuana and a pipe. Police gave a 23-year-old Appleton man a $492 ticket for possession of marijuana. A 22-year-old town of Menasha woman received a $272 ticket for possession of drug paraphernalia.

"It just goes to show that a lot of people aren't the smartest," Weber said.

It also shows what technology and dispatchers can do.

Police refused to release the names of the two people involved in the incident. Police said they weren't sure whether the two people were providing information to the drug unit.