Waterloo man arrested for lying about accident

The Seneca County Sheriff’s Office reports that Sheriff’s Deputies arrested Joseph C. Burchim, Jr., 19, of 215 West Williams Street in Waterloo, New York, on a charge of Falsely Reporting an Incident in the third degree. The arrest stems from an incident where Burchim sent text messages to a Village of Waterloo resident reporting that he was seriously injured in a motor vehicle accident and refused to disclose his location. The person receiving the text messages called 911 which initiated an emergency response from four law enforcement agencies in Seneca and Ontario Counties. Burchim was located in the Village of Waterloo about 90 minutes later and was uninjured and was not involved in a motor vehicle accident. Burchim was arraigned in the Seneca Falls Town Court and remanded to the Seneca County Correctional Facility on $2,500 cash bail/$5,000 secured bond. Burchim is to reappear in the Waterloo Village Court on August 30th, 2011 at 10am.