Some of the comments posted in response to this story (on the sfgate site, not here) asked how come it took authorities so long to track this guy down.

There was a rash of prank 911 calls in Alberta recently - eventually, a number of high school kids were arrested. I don't think it's all that easy to track down a 911 call.

Anyone know just how difficult it was for the authorities to catch this guy? I presume the cell phone number showed up on the 911 operator's screen, so if the phone was registered in his name, they could have tracked him down fairly easily.

On the other hand, I believe that cell phone companies are required by law to accept 911 calls even on cell phones that don't have a plan. Would he have been using a stolen cell phone or something?

Any ideas why it took 27,000 prank calls to identify the guy?