Father of juvenile prank callers apologizes to Celis family

TUCSON, AZ (Tucson News Now) - Two juvenile girls are in custody after a prank call to 911.

Tucson Police say on Sunday morning they received a 911 call from a young female claiming to be Isabel Celis.

The female, who called from a cell phone, stated she had been kidnapped and hung up the phone.

The cell phone was traced to the 7200 block of East Pierce Place. Officers immediately began canvassing the area in search of the caller.

Over 25 Tucson Police officers including detectives from the Sex Offenders Registration and Tracking Unit responded to continue the investigation.

Their investigation led them to an apartment complex located at 1345 South Kolb Road.

Officers made contact at an apartment with two juvenile females. The females admitted to making the phone call to 911 as a prank.

The mother of the juveniles was at the apartment but unaware that the phone call had been made to 911.

Both juveniles were arrested for one count of false reporting to a law enforcement agency and booked into the Pima County Juvenile Corrections Center.

The father of the girls who asked to remain anonymous spoke to Tucson News Now on Sunday night. He said he was devastated, upset, and hurt over the incident. He said he had talked to police about detaining his daughters for an appropriate amount of time. He also said he wanted to reach out to the Celis family and personally apologize for the incident. He planned to make his daughters write apology letters and was willing to meet with and have them personally apologize to the Celis family, if they wanted that.

The father said that he was not at home at the time of this incident. The girls used an old cell phone that did not have an activated plan, but it was still able to dial 911.

Their father said he planned to donate all their unused phones to Verizon, so they could be put to good use.

The Tucson Police Department will conduct an investigation into any call made to 911 in regards to Isabel Celis.

The police encourage anyone with information to come forward but warn that any false reports made to 911 will be investigated and aggressively prosecuted to the fullest extent.