5 months ago
KEANSBURG, NJ (APP) - Police arrested a 41-year-old borough woman who they say thought she telephoned a teenager to intervene in a dispute between him and another boy, but instead, accidentally called the police station and threatened a dispatcher.
Tara A. Donahue of Main Street was arrested at her home by Patrolman John Magner Monday night.
On Monday, two teens were involved in a dispute, and the father of one of the boys was a friend of Donahue, said Deputy Police Chief James Pigott.
That father had the cell phone number of the other boy, and Donahue told police she decided to call that boy, because she was "looking out for her friend's children."
But instead, she apparently misdialed and called the main number of the police station, authorities said.
Pigott said dispatcher John Swartz - who is also a class II special officer in the borough - received that call - and he answered the phone using a standard format - saying Keansburg police, Dispatcher Swartz and noting the time - 11:44 p.m.
That's when Donahue began to threaten him, police said.
Magner was inside headquarters, and he listened to the call for a minute or two, then drove the seven or eight blocks to Donahue's Main Street home because the call had been traced there, said Pigott.
Meanwhile, Donahue continued to threaten to kill the dispatcher and his mother, said Pigott.
When Magner arrived, Donahue was sitting on her porch, still talking to the dispatcher on the telephone, the deputy chief said.
The patrolman asked her with whom she was speaking, and she replied "a punk kid," police said.
She was charged with making terroristic threats, obstruction, disorderly conduct and harassment.
Bail was set at $23,000 and she was sent to the Monmouth County Jail, Freehold Township.
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