Photo: Kanahwa County Sheriff's Office
A West Virginia man is accused of calling 911 to falsely report a robbery while the vehicle he and three others were traveling in was pulled over by police in Kanawha County last week.
Matthew Hammack, 27, of Charleston was charged with falsely reporting an emergency, according to a Kanawha County Sheriff's Office news release.
A Kanawha County deputy made a traffic stop of a vehicle reporting to be speeding in South Charleston at Mile Marker 55 on I-64, which officers reported had several occupants who "seemed inebriated."
The deputy called for backup to watch the occupants of the vehicle participate in roadside tests and, while awaiting other deputies to arrive, the department received a report from a man who claimed two Black males robbed a nearby gas station.
The deputy on scene told dispatchers that other responding deputies didn't need to assist him in light of the reported robbery, however, dispatchers noted that the 911 caller was located at the same spot as the traffic stop, not near where the robbery was reported to have taken place.
Officers from the Charleston Police Department, South Charleston Police Department and the Kanawha County Sheriff's Office all arrived at the scene and assisted in detaining the four individuals.
Dispatchers called back the number from the 911 gas station robbery call and a phone in the back seat of the stopped vehicle rang.
Both occupants in the back seat at the time of the traffic stop denied it was their phone, with one individual providing his own phone in his pocket as proof.
Police had that person call the phone and it once again rang, with deputies identifying Hammack as the owner of the phone and the person responsible for making the false report.
The driver of the vehicle passed a field sobriety test and was cited for speeding before being allowed to continue driving the vehicle away from the scene.