WILMINGTON, N.C. (WNCN) — The United States Coast Guard Investigative Service and Sector North Carolina are asking for the public’s help finding a person who has made “multiple false distress calls” coming from the Wilmington area along North Carolina’s coast.
The false calls are “believed to have originated from the Leland and Brunswick areas,” which are just south across the Cape Fear River from Wilmington. The UCSG said the calls consist of someone “calling out for help with various locations and descriptions of their vessel or nature of distress.”
They sent a six-second sample of one of the calls, in which you can hear a person yelling, “Mayday mayday mayday! Boat down, boat down! I repeat, can anybody hear me? Mayday mayday mayday!”
According to the USCG, at least seven hoax calls have been made since Dec. 21, 2024 over VHF channel 16. That channel, the UCSG said, should only be used for hailing and distress calls, and knowingly transmitting false ones is a federal crime that could result in civil and criminal penalties that could include up to 10 years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines as well as the cost of the search…