911 ‘butt-dial’ leads cops to burglary suspect

Mike Deak | (Bridgewater, N.J.) Courier News

BRANCHBURG, N.J. — Police were able to solve a burglary after they traced a 911 “butt-dial” call to Somerset County dispatchers, who heard people talking about a burglary.

Scott Esser, 42, of Elizabeth, is in the Somerset County Jail in lieu of $100,000 bail following his arrest Wednesday.

According to Somerset County Prosecutor Geoffrey Soriano, the county communications center on July 27 received what appeared to them to be an errant open-line telephone call, commonly called a “butt-dial.”

Dispatchers heard male voices discussing a burglary but were unsure of the caller’s location, Soriano said.

Later that evening, police responded to a burglary at a Branchburg residence. Police found that $1,355 in jewelry was stolen, Soriano said.

The cellphone company told investigators that the phone from which the errant call was made to the communications center had recently been assigned to Esser, the prosecutor said.

On Wednesday, detectives from the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office Burglary Task Force set up surveillance of Esser as he drove a silver Toyota Camry from Elizabeth to Stafford Township in Ocean County.

Detectives followed Esser to a home in Stafford but lost sight of him when he got out of the car, Soriano said.

After he got back into the car and left the area, detectives went to the house and discovered it had been burglarized, Soriano said.

State Police stopped Esser on the Garden State Parkway, where he was arrested by Somerset County detectives.

The Camry was towed to the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office Forensic Lab, where detectives found miscellaneous pieces of jewelry, electronic devices, a Playstation 4 gaming system, a .38-caliber handgun, U.S. bonds worth approximately $11,300 and burglary tools, Soriano said.

That led to Esser being charged with burglaries in Branchburg, Stafford and Berkeley Heights.