When making calls to 911, the caller is expected to have an emergency.
But an Elizabethton man has been charged with making non-emergency 911 calls after police say he made several such calls in a single night.
Norman Dean, 58, 701 Allen Ave., was arrested by the Elizabethton Police Department late Tuesday night and charged with making non-emergency 911 calls.
Officers were dispatched to 701 Allen Ave. after a report that an intoxicated person was in the parking lot. They reported finding one man, who was not intoxicated. The man told officers it was a man in one of the apartments who had been causing a disturbance.
In an incident report, Patrol Officer John Bulla said officers approached the apartment and knocked on the door. Bulla said the man inside, later identified as Dean, responded with an expletive and “go away.” Bulla said officers identified themselves and asked if the man had called 911, which he said he had and still refused to open the door.
The 911 communication center was able to trace the phone number to the apartment at the address. The building manager confirmed Dean was the only resident at that apartment.
Officers checked the 911 call logs, which the officer said showed Dean had called 911 close to an hour before the police had arrived on the scene to report a felon in possession of handguns.
Bulla said the log indicated Dean called again on two separate occasions. The report said the first call had been ended when dispatchers answered. The second call in the log indicated he became irate and said a convicted felon with a gun was not “good enough” for the EPD and he hoped the felon would come out and shoot the officers, Bulla wrote in his report.