Man on meth called 911 nearly 80 times in less than 5 hours, police say

A Winnipeg man has been charged with public mischief after police say he got high on meth and made 79 fake calls to 911 in a five-hour period starting late New Year's Day.

The 23-year-old is accused of making dozens of calls starting at 11:10 p.m. on Jan. 1and continuing until he was arrested at a home just before 4 a.m. on Jan. 2, police said in a news release on Thursday.

The first call was a report of a family being sexually assaulted at a home in the Burrows-Keewatin area, the release said.

"Upon arrival, officers met with a family at the residence who stated they were fine and had not contacted police," it says.

Over the next 4 hours, communications centre staff spent two hours dealing with incoming and outgoing calls from the man, police said, trying to figure out if any were legitimate and to identify who was placing the calls.

Staff did traces on the calls, many of which reported individuals in distress using fake names at fake addresses, police said.

Around 3:55 a.m., police arrested a man at a residence on Boyle Street. He was detained in custody and charged with public mischief.