Cigarette at root of 911 call, Cape police say

The Cape Girardeau woman who was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of calling 911 to send authorities to mediate a verbal altercation with her significant other called because the man would not speak to her or give her a cigarette, police say.

Jennifer O'Neal, 25, had run out of minutes on her cellphone when she got into a verbal, nonviolent altercation with a man at her home, Cape Girardeau police spokesman Darin Hickey said. Because she had no minutes, O'Neal called 911 -- the only number a cellphone can call when it is out of minutes -- to get someone to her house to mediate the altercation, which stemmed from the man refusing to give a cigarette or speak to O'Neal, Hickey said.

When police arrived at the home, O'Neal was arrested for misusing 911, a misdemeanor punishable by up to a $500 fine. O'Neal was being held in the Cape Girardeau County Jail on $1,500 bond.

O'Neal had misused the number, Hickey said, because the altercation could have been handled without police intervention.