CBS2 Exclusive: S.I. Man Admits He Made Up Fake Crime To Redirect Officer Giving Him Ticket
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A Staten Island who recently got pulled over for a speeding ticket said he was hoping the officer who pulled him over would be diverted when he called in a bogus robbery.
As CBS2's Dave Carlin reported exclusively, the driver – Mohamad Mujalli, 23 -- said he was desperate. He described himself as a serial speeder, and he had the tickets to prove it.
"See? I got so many," Mujalli said as he held up his tickets.
Mujalli admits that this past Thursday evening, he was going 40 mph in a 25 mph zone when an officer stopped him at Amboy Avenue and Rose Lane.
"I have like 70 suspensions on my name; on my license, from before, so I didn't want any more speeding tickets," he said.
So Mujalli came up with what he now calls his stupid and potentially dangerous scheme. He made up a robbery at a nearby pizzera to get the officer redirected.
"I decided to make a 911 phone call, (to say) that some old lady was getting robbed," Mujalli said.
Soon afterward, a dispatcher was heard on the police radio system saying a man had just robbed a woman and was heading toward a nearby Dunkin' Donuts.
Mujalli was inside his car on the phone with the dispatcher while the officer was behind him writing him a ticket. He soon realized his plan to redirect the officer who stopped him was not working, as other squad cars began zooming by.
"He was still writing the ticket," Mujalli said. "He wasn't going anywhere."
Carlin asked Mujalli if he realized that the NYPD has other officers who might have responded to a crime scene.
"I realized after," he said.
And those other officers went to a pizzeria on Huguenot Avenue to look for a fictional victim and robber.
"There's two cops come in and they're asking if somebody robbed the store; they just got a call here," said pizzeria staffer Tom Setteducato. "Everyone's all confused."
Meanwhile, the dispatchers tried to call Mujalli back and his phone went to voicemail.
"I started hanging up on the operator and she kept calling my phone back," he said. "The precinct started calling me. I'm like, oh man, this is bad. They traced my phone and they got my information."
Mujalli ended up getting arrested.
"I went to jail for the night. I went through Central Booking. I seen the judge the next morning," he said. "It was horrible."
Mujalli's punishment is a fine and five days of community service. Carlin asked him if he had learned from his experience.
"I've definitely learned to go the speed limit," he said. "I apologize to the cops in the 123 Precinct."
Mujalli also said he was sorry he put his family through the ordeal. He expects the last ticket to put him over the top and he will lose his license.
Mujalli said he knows he was lucky that no one was accidentally injured as police responded to his false report.
