SINGAPORE — What began as a bizarre prank turned into a criminal case after a 37-year-old Singaporean man was sentenced to 23 days in jail for making more than 1,000 silent calls to police stations, telling investigators he did it simply “for fun and enjoyment.”
Foo Jia Hong pleaded guilty on Wednesday, Aug. 26, to obstructing police officers by repeatedly calling the landline of the Yishun Neighbourhood Police Centre (NPC) and remaining silent. Three other charges involving calls to police centres in Ang Mo Kio North, Bedok and Geylang were taken into consideration during sentencing.
The scale of the disruption was staggering. Of the 425 silent calls made to Yishun NPC, officers answered 330 calls. Prosecutors said the repeated calls clogged the phone lines, placing subsequent callers in queues and potentially delaying legitimate calls from being answered promptly.
A SIM Card, a Hidden Identity and More Than 1,000 Calls
According to court proceedings, the calls were made between late April and early May 2026 using a phone number registered under another person’s identity. Police investigations later established that Foo had found a SIM card inside a second-hand mobile phone cover he purchased at a night market and used the number to make the calls.
Foo reportedly obtained the police centres’ landline numbers from directories or informational materials and used them to repeatedly call the stations without speaking.
Police had earlier said the caller took measures to conceal his identity, including using a foreign number. Officers from the Woodlands Police Division eventually identified and arrested him in May.
Why Silent Calls Can Be More Serious Than They Seem
While this case involved Neighbourhood Police Centre landlines rather than Singapore’s 999 emergency hotline, authorities have repeatedly warned that nuisance and silent calls can consume valuable police resources and delay responses to people who genuinely need help.
Singapore has faced the problem before. Police data reported by CNA showed that thousands of calls received daily by the 999 emergency system had previously been silent calls, forcing operators to spend time dealing with calls that did not involve an actual emergency. Authorities warned that such misuse can increase waiting times and divert limited resources away from genuine incidents.
The Singapore Police Force has maintained that it takes silent and false calls seriously and will investigate and prosecute offenders when necessary.
Court Weighs Deterrence Against Personal Circumstances
Foo was previously remanded at the Institute of Mental Health for psychiatric assessment and was found to have a mild intellectual disability. However, the assessment concluded that the condition did not contribute to the offences, CNA reported.
In sentencing him, District Judge Koo Zhi Xuan said the court had to consider his circumstances while also emphasizing deterrence, particularly given the extraordinary number of calls and their disruptive effect on police operations.
The case sends a clear message: a prank phone call may seem harmless to the person making it, but when repeated hundreds—or thousands—of times, the consequences can extend far beyond a joke.
Behind every blocked line could be someone trying to report a crime, seek assistance, or reach officers for an urgent reason.
And in this case, more than 1,000 moments of silence ultimately ended with a jail sentence.
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