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NJ Man Charged With Felony After Joke Text To Friend Prompts Rescue Response
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Be careful what you text — even to friends.
A New Jersey man said he was just playing an innocent joke, but the police said not so fast.
Bill Miller, of Keyport, New Jersey said it is no joke that he was arrested near his bright yellow catamaran on the shore on the Raritan Bay.
“My boat was never off the beach, I was in my house with my cell phone at my waist,” Miller told CBS 2′s Derricke Dennis.
That’s when police said he took one joke too far.
Wednesday afternoon, he playfully texted a friend “I am flipped over in the middle of the bay…I don’t know what to do??”
“She took it seriously I guess and, uh…she had already contacted the authorities — 911,” Miller said.
Keyport police weren’t laughing. That text triggered an emergency response in the middle of a storm that included bad weather, dangerous lightning, trees and power lines down.
cfm990
July 21st, 2012
The fool should be nailed to the barn door. To me, this is no different to popping off distress flairs on the 4th of July.
FreeMan - "Save Me Sarah"
July 21st, 2012
SNAKE!!
Just kidding
FreeMan - "Save Me Sarah"
July 21st, 2012
FIRE!
made you look
FreeMan - "Save Me Sarah"
July 21st, 2012
BURMA!
Trixie Bluebell
July 21st, 2012
What a dolt!
Unneutral
July 21st, 2012
Some jokes are too inappropriate, this is one of them.
Tim
July 21st, 2012
How is that a joke?
Delivery?
Punch Line?
Funny?
Stirrin the B.S.
July 21st, 2012
Hey idiot, what happens the next time when it’s a real emergency?
“Oh, that’s old Bill Miller at it again. He’s such a joker. Pay him no mind.”
General Ripper
July 22nd, 2012
He sails. That’s all the proof I need to know the sonofabitch is guilty.
He probably decribes fishermen as “fishers” too.
General Ripper
July 22nd, 2012
They oughtta lower the boom on this guy.
I bet he was three sheets to the wind.
I don’t like the cut of his jib.
He took the wrong tack when he texted that joke.
Keelhaul the bastard!
By and large he was wrong.
Stache
July 23rd, 2012
@Tim
How is that a joke?
Delivery? Nope
Punch Line? Left it off
Funny? Not in this lifetime.
-I have no answer to your question. I was hoping someone had explained it by now. Apparently Bill Miller has a laugh-track app on his phone, or learned ‘humor’ during the last two seasons of ‘Cheers’ or ‘mash’.