Hacker Plays 'Jump' on Police Radio

Feb. 3 -- It may be considered a sick and twisted joke to some, but the police chief in Omaha, Nebraska, isn't amused.

The city's police chief Don Carey wants to know who broadcast the Van Halen song "Jump" overa police radio, while officers negotiated with a man threatening toleap from an overpass.

As officers negotiated with the man to come down, the police radios were blaring the lyrics "might as well jump… go ahead jump."

Carey says the broadcast was inappropriate.

"It's obviously a safety issue for the officers that were responding on scene, and had to talk to each other because they [were] at a critical part of what was going on and they lost all radio transmission," said Mark Conrey, Douglas County 911 director. "We have no way of knowing who tied up the channel for two and-a-half minutes."

Conrey said the man clutching an overpass fence couldn't have heard the broadcast.

After five hours, the man surrendered to officers. He was wanted on a domestic violence charge.

Police say other public safety agencies have access to thefrequency on which the song was played. Someone who found a lost orstolen police radio also could have transmitted the song.