Mayday is expensive hoax, U.S. concludes

NEW YORK — Hoax emergency calls like the one about a yacht explosion off New Jersey on Monday cost U.S. taxpayers millions of dollars a year — yet authorities who police the nation’s coastlines acknowledge there’s little they can do to prevent them.

Monday’s search operation about 20 miles off Sandy Hook, N.J., took about four hours and cost rescue agencies, including the Coast Guard, more than $100,000 by the time authorities decided the person who reported the emergency had made it up.

The hoax caller reported in a calm, clear voice that “we have three deceased, nine injured” aboard a sinking yacht called the Blind Date after an explosion on board. He said that he was calling from a solar-powered radio and that “we have 21 souls on board, 20 in the water right now.”

The call made immediate national news and sent Coast Guard vessels and New York City police helicopters scrambling to search for people and wreckage, only to turn up nothing.

From the Canadian border down to Sandy Hook alone, the Coast Guard received 300 suspected hoax reports last year. Officials have to take such calls seriously — especially those like Monday’s, which contained minute details, authorities said.

Making a false call is a federal felony, with a maximum penalty of six years in prison, a $250,000 fine and reimbursement to the Coast Guard for the search cost.