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MORAKOT: THE AFTERMATH: Anger over student prank call to emergency hotline

A college student sparked anger yesterday when he posted a video clip of a prank call he placed to a TV station’s emergency hotline on YouTube.

The video showed the student, Hsieh Shao-hsiang (謝少祥), and his friends calling TVBS’ emergency hotline on Saturday and telling TVBS anchor Cheng Kai-yun (鄭凱云) that he was calling from Jhongli in Taoyuan County.

“It’s windy here in Taoyuan, but there is no rain. Why couldn’t I have the east wind I was hoping for?” Hsieh asked as he and his friends, who were filming the video, struggled to hold back giggles.

The clip is 2 minutes and 52 seconds.

A link to the footage was posted by angry Web users on a message board about Morakot relief efforts on the Professional Technology Temple (PTT) bulletin board system, drawing many angry comments.

Users called Hsieh “immature” and hoped his school would expel him. Others began trying to identify him and soon posted his name and said he was a sophomore at Taoyuan’s Chang Gung University.

When asked for comment, university authorities said they were upset by the student’s prank.

The university said it would discipline him.

“He should not have made the call while everyone was busy with disaster relief,” university secretary-general Chen Yi-ho (陳逸和) told reporters.

Hsieh was told to post an apology on PTT and did so later yesterday.

Hsieh said he and his friends were playing mahjong that night and the loser was forced to make the prank call.

“I feel awful and haven’t been able to sleep,” the student said.

“I learned a valuable lesson. Posting the clip on the Internet for fun was inappropriate,” Hsieh said.
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