‘Obscene’ calls to police lead to charges

A Hayward man dialed up hundreds of police departments around the country, and several in Canada, in a series of “obscene, annoying, threatening, harassing” and “sexually explicit” calls over a nearly two-year period, according to unsealed federal court documents.

Sammy Sultan was charged with violations of interstate communications and making obscene or harassing calls, according to federal prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California.

The FBI investigated the puzzling calls during which Sultan would most often ask to speak with a female dispatcher, claim he had recently been released from a mental institution, was armed and would not harm anyone if the dispatcher heard him out, an agent wrote in a affidavit included in court records. The calls were made from February 2015 to Aug. 25, 2016.

Authorities said they linked the calls made to dozens of police departments to five Metro PCS “burner” phones, which are difficult to track.

The federal investigation of Sultan started when authorities with the Massachusetts State Police contacted the FBI to report several “harassing and threatening” phone calls made to a female sergeant at the agency’s South Yarmouth Barracks on Feb. 7, 2015.

Sultan told the sergeant — he specifically requested to speak to a woman — that he was staying at a nearby hotel and repeated the narrative that he had been released from a mental institution and had in his possession several guns, according to the affidavit.

As the sergeant tried to determine who Sultan was, he allegedly became increasingly erratic, on one occasion requesting to “sniff ” the sergeant’s slippers.

After many more phone calls, police in Hayward zeroed in on Sultan’s home with the assistance of the FBI in June 2015. Sultan then denied owning a cell phone or making any phone calls, according to the affidavit.

While serving a search warrant on Sultan’s home on Aug. 25, 2016, detectives found several cell phones, according to records.

An attorney listed for Sultan did not immediately return a request for comment.

Sultan was released on $5,000 bond, provided he not contact police departments, save in the event of an actual emergency, court records show.