Michael Arnold
MARION/RICHLAND COs., Ill. - One would think one of the most preventable ways of staying out of trouble would be to NOT pick up a phone and make a false police report.
One would also think that if a person were so dimwitted as to do such a thing, that person might also NOT post his cell phone number in public on Facebook.
But these are strange times we're living in, and it seems the brain worm might have more deeply impacted some of its victims than others.
We don't know if Michael Arnold has it...but, you know. SOMETHING is off-kilter a little bit...according to authorities.
Arnold, 47, of Olney, caught a felony charge Wednesday, November 1, not in Richland County, but in Marion County, two to the west of Richland.
According to authorities, Arnold made a 911 call the night before regarding a motorcycle having been crashed in the middle of the roadway on the 161 Extension, which runs through Marion County. It was the caller's claim that the bike was "mangled" near the Union Pacific Railroad tracks that run north-south across the east-west 161.
This call prompted every response agency in Marion County to come running, including Marion County Sheriff's officials, the Kell Fire, Marion County EMS and Marion County ESDA. They discovered no mangled bike, and nothing in the vicinity to indicate one had ever been there.
And of course, the caller hadn't identified himself....so dispatch traced the number back, and somehow was able to trace it to Arnold's Facebook page.
Arnold was located when a truck parked at a church (unidentified as to which one, or even which city, but likely in Marion County) had plates that came back to Arnold. When Arnold was taken in, he at first decided to tell the authorities he hadn't made the call...but he inexplicably allowed the deputies to see the phone the call was made on, and it of course showed that one had indeed been made. Reports indicate that it wasn't even his phone...so why it was connected to his Facebook page may remain one of those mysteries of the ages.
Why on earth he allegedly did such a thing has also gone unaddressed by reports. If you have a theory, feel free to post it.
Mr. Arnold, charged formally with a Class 4 felony Making a False Report, is being held on a $20,000 bail ($2,000 cash bond) in Marion County Jail. He's set for a prelim November 21, prior to which time we'd be willing to bet his public defender will pull a Ramey and claim a fitness issue.