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OREM — It may be one of the most frightening situations for a 911 dispatcher to hear: a teenage boy calling to say he has just shot his mother to death. But the caller, whose story proved to be a hoax, took the call even further.
Caller: "I said my dad is tied up.”
Dispatcher: "Where?
Caller: "In my bedroom with me. My gun pointing at him.”
Dispatcher: "Is your room upstairs or downstairs?”
Caller: "You are going to have to find out because all you will see is dead bodies!"
Every available Orem officer began responding to the home, where the call appeared to be coming from, but with a measure of caution.
"Everyone be careful; make sure it's not one of those swatting calls," an officer said.
There have been departments that have responded to these type of calls and people have gotten hurt and it's a serious problem. I know people have been caught calling in these prank swatting phone calls and have actually been sentenced to prison.
–Lt. Craig Martinez, Orem Police Department
Officers arrived to the neighborhood relieved to find everyone was OK.
“Just advise we have made contact with three subjects in the house; we are trying to figure it out right now," a responding officer said.
“We surrounded the house, we got three teenage boys to come out of the house, searched the house. There were no problems and then we found out this has happened before,” said Lt. Craig Martinez of the Orem Police Department.
In fact, this has happened two times before. While one of the teens is playing an online video game, a "swatting" call like this one is made by other gamers trying to punish another player.
“Somebody has something against someone in an online video game, finds an IP address of where they are at and gets an address and does this kind of thing. (They) call the authorities and put out this type of scenario that they think will elicit a SWAT response,” Martinez said.
For police a "swatting" call is very serious and merits a priority investigation, due to the possibility of innocent people getting hurt.
“There have been departments that have responded to these type of calls and people have gotten hurt and it's a serious problem. I know people have been caught calling in these prank swatting phone calls and have actually been sentenced to prison,” Martinez noted.
Police said the investigation is still in its early stages but that they will pursue charges if they can identify the caller.
