I can see why you think so, but I can't believe that. If that's the case, then that means they saw a meteor at 1 AM and decided in that moment they could capitalize on it? Nah, that just doesn't make sense. I can believe that they might have decided that afterward, when they started getting press attention, but I think the 911 call at least is "genuine", meaning that they were scared and believed what they were saying even if it wasn't actually true.