If we still had a heart (we recently sold it for firewood), it would go out to Mamadou and Assetou Sy: a Manhattan couple of the Muslim faith who have been targeted by 911-dialing pranksters at least 155 times in the past two years. Are their harassers anti-Muslim?

The Sys don't think so. Sometimes the calls come in the middle of the night. Some days bring two calls. Sometimes the pranksters summon the New York Fire Department to the Sys' house to put out fake stove fires. Sometimes the pranksters summon the New York Police Department to the Sys' house to put out fake gunfire. The pranksters seem to prefer the FDNY over the NYPD, logging twice as many calls with the fire guys as with the cops. Over the past two years everybody's become frustrated—the fire guys, the Sys, the cops. But none among them has been able to identify the caller, so the surprise emergency responder visits—which aren't a surprise anymore—continue. "Every time someone knocks on our door, we say it must be the police," Mrs. Sy tells the New York Daily News. "And most of the time, it is them."

We wish we knew more about the why the police can't identify the calls, given that technology exists for this express purpose. Maybe the callers use pay phones? How old-fashioned that would be! Given the frequency of the calls, the Sys should work out a deal by which a cop and a firefighter moves in with them until the riddle is solved.

[NYDN. Image via Shutterstock]