An Ohio man tried to divert police with a fake bomb threat in Ottawa, Canada to protest mask rules. But he actually called local police.

• An Ohio man tried to divert police with a fake bomb threat in Ottawa, Canada to protest mask rules.
• Instead, he actually called the sheriff's office in Ottawa, Ohio, and admitted to the mistake.

A man living in Ohio tried to divert Canadian police in Ottawa with a bogus bomb threat to show support for truckers in the country who are protesting COVID-19 restrictions.

Instead, the unidentified 20-year-old man actually called police in Ottawa, Ohio — a village in Putnam County, roughly 50 miles southwest of Toledo.

Putnam County sheriff's Capt. Brad Brubaker told Insider on Thursday the man may now face criminal charges after he called the sheriff's office twice in Ohio on Monday, first threatening he had a bomb in Canada's Ottawa.

Brubaker said the police determined from the location of the call that the man was from Akron, Ohio, and relayed the information to their counterparts up in Canada.

The man then called the sheriff's office a second time and reported that he had been shot, to which the dispatcher responded that they would need to forward the details to the police in Canada.

After finding out he had called the wrong police department the man reversed course and told police he actually wasn't shot, Brubaker told Insider.

The man, trying to divert the attention of Ottawa, Canada police, said he didn't have a bomb and was "just trying to waste their time and resources because [he didn't] like their mask mandates," Brubaker said.

Ottawa, Canada has been the epicenter of ongoing demonstrations, where thousands of Canadian truckers have been protesting COVID-19 lockdown measures and cross-border vaccination requirements, as part of the "Freedom Convoy," by blocking major roads in the country.

The city's police department said on Thursday it was "aware of a concerted effort to flood our 911 and non-emergency policing reporting line."

"This endangers lives and is completely unacceptable," Ottawa police wrote on Twitter. The city's mayor has also declared a state of emergency.

When Brubaker called the man back to let him know that he may face charges, the man apologized, admitting his mistake. The man then tried to defend himself by saying his threat was for a different country — not the US.

"You would think the 419 area code would have gave it away," Brubaker said, and described the situation in one word: "stupidity."

The incident prompted the Ottawa Police Department in Ohio to post a clarification on its Facebook page on Tuesday.

"Just for clarification, this page is the Ottawa Police Department, in Ottawa, Putnam County, Ohio," it wrote. "We have been receiving calls, messages and comments from citizens in Canada."

Brubaker said the sheriff's office has received mistaken calls before — meant to go to other Putnam counties in the US — but that this was the first mix-up in relation to anti-government demonstrations in Canada.

Though the current wave of protests may have begun in Canada, it appears to be spreading beyond its borders.

In the US, dozens of right-wing groups have been using Telegram to discuss organizing trucker convoys to protest COVID-19 rules in Washington DC — including planning routes and what gear to bring.

The Department of Homeland Security has even warned that trucker convoys protesting vaccine mandates could begin as soon as the upcoming Super Bowl weekend.

And in Europe, a handful of cities are threatening "Freedom Convoy"-inspired protesters with jail time and fines in the hopes of avoiding blockades such as the one in Ottawa.