Phone Prankster Plays on Family Fear : North County’s ‘Dr. Doom’ Spreads False Stories of Disaster

A telephone prankster impersonating an emergency-room physician has tormented North County residents recently by calling late at night and telling them their loved ones have been in tragic accidents, Oceanside police said Friday.

The prankster, apparently a man, uses the name of an actual emergency-room physician at Tri-City Medical Center when he identifies himself during the nocturnal calls, said Sgt. Bill Krunglevich.

Police received two complaints Tuesday night about such incidents, which resemble crank calls made about six months ago, Krunglevich said. In the past few years, residents in Oceanside, Escondido and Vista have received similar calls. Police believe one prankster is responsible for all of them.

“He calls up in the wee hours of the morning, identifies himself as one of the doctors on duty at a local trauma center, and tells a semi-graphic horror story that may involve close friends or relatives,” Krunglevich said. “The victim takes off in a frantic search for his loved one, gets to the hospital, and finds out the whole thing is a hoax.”

Krunglevich said the random nature of the calls makes it nearly impossible for police to catch the prankster, whose messages have earned him the nickname Dr. Doom.

“There is no pattern to his calls at all,” Krunglevich said. “He makes some calls for a while and then disappears. He doesn’t harass any one person, so it’s difficult to trace his calls. It’s almost as if he just thumbs through the phone book and picks a name.”

A Tri-City spokeswoman said the hospital hopes the caller is apprehended soon.

“Obviously we are disturbed by this,” Mimi Pontisso said. “It affects how people look at us. But we (want) the public to know that it is not a member of our medical staff who is doing this.”