Katie Couric: Police Say "Spoofing" to Blame for Bizarre 911 Calls From Late Husband Jay Monahan's Phone

Daytime gabber reveals New York's Finest are investigating a bizarre string of automated emergency calls that have caused police to show up at her doorstep in the middle of the night

By Josh Grossberg Feb 15, 2013 2:17 PMTags
TCA Press Tour, Katie Couric Rick Rowell/ABC

Katie Couric might want to devote an episode of Katie to this trend. Or not.

A series of phony 911 calls placed from her late husband's phone is being probed by the New York Police Department, which cited the phenomenon known as "spoofing" as a possible culprit.

According to the New York Daily News, the talk-show host told her audience during a break from filming her eponymous show on Tuesday that the bogus emergency calls placed from Jay Monahan's phone have occurred every Tuesday at approximately 2 a.m. over the last three weeks.

The 56-year-old Couric said she'd be awakened by the mystery calls, all of which were automated and would ring her back with a 911 operator on the line who'd inform her a patrol officer was dispatched to her Manhattan apartment.

She became so distressed by the calls that she phoned New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly asking him to look into the matter.

"So I called Ray Kelly, who I know just through the years seeing at different things. 'Ray, this is so weird but can you help me? I just don't know what to do,'" the veteran journalist was quoted as telling her audience.

Another person who was at the taping told the paper that Couric came out looking exhausted and apologized for starting the taping later than usual, saying she got little to no sleep the night before.

But most of the calls, Couric said, happened when she was out of town, and she likened it to the "swatting" calls Los Angeles police have received over the past year in which SWAT teams have been sent to the homes of various stars like Tom Cruise, Charlie Sheen and Ashton Kutcher following bogus reports of armed robbers.

NYPD investigators, however, have described this hoax as "spoofing," where an individual was able to dial 911 after using a device to hijack the landline belonging to Monahan, who died of colon cancer in 1998.