A pizza order leads to a huge police response in suburban Chicago swatting
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The FBI is seeing a growing problem of false emergency calls designed to trigger a significant police response. These false reports of hostage situations, kidnappings, and bomb threats put both first responders and innocent people in jeopardy.
At least 600 people were victims of swatting since last year, according to FBI data. Swatting even led to an innocent Kansas man being killed by responding officers.
FBI Special Agent Siobhan Johnson said the bureau has created a special unit of 700 individuals from 350 law enforcement agencies across the country to collect data to identify patterns and solutions. The FBI created its virtual command center in May 2023.
"This command center was aimed at allowing local police departments to work with us in real-time," said Johnson. "To track these swatting incidents across jurisdictions anywhere that they're occurring."
The Adkins family were victims of swatting in February. Aurora police descended on their home at midnight one night with officers telling them to come outside, questioning whether they had weapons and wanting to search their home.
John Adkins and his wife, Jennifer, were confused and afraid.
"I came out, and the first thing I did was put my hands up," said Jon Adkins. "There were a number of officers with shields and guns pointed at me in my direction."
They had no idea police were there in response to a 911 call claiming the husband was holding his wife and children hostage.
Most of this incident was caught on police body camera videos. Jon was told to walk backward toward officers as one said: "Just keep coming. Keep coming. Keep walking back."
Officers wanted to make sure Jennifer was safe. One officer can be heard saying, "Ma'am, can you step out for a sec?"
She came outside in her bathrobe and put her arms up.
Police then asked to search the family's home and found everyone was safe.
"I was very quickly able to decipher that, you know, I think I'm being swatted," Jon said.
"At some point during that interaction, they asked me if I ordered a pizza," Jon continued. "I thought that was a very interesting question, given the circumstances."
Police questioned him about a pizza order and a plea for help that was included in the order.
"I was dumbfounded and I'm like: 'No, I didn't order a pizza. Two minutes ago, I was up in my bed, you know, sleeping naked. I didn't order pizza. Why are you asking this question?" Jon said.
One officer can be heard explaining what happened.
"Someone placed an online order from this location saying: 'Please send help. My husband has a gun pointed at me and my children,' " said the officer on the body camera video.
After getting that plea for help, a Domino's worker called 911. While police continued investigating, Jon saw a Domino's pizza delivery car drive past the swatting scene.
According to the police report and officers on the scene, the swatters were able to use the Domino's app to plant their fake hostage message. The app allows people to order without giving a real name or credit card number.
This type of situation happened before in San Diego in 2019. Police said swatters used the Domino's pizza app to send a fake message that someone was in danger, which triggered a police response.
The Adkins family attorney, Lee Jacobson, is planning legal action against Domino's.
"Domino's had an obligation to prevent this," Jacobson said. "They had the knowledge that this could happen, because it did happen in 2019. Who knows how many more times it's happened since then? But they were aware that it happened. This isn't something that was not on their radar."
Lee said in the Adkins case, police are investigating two juveniles who attend the same school as one of Jon's kids.
Aurora police won't comment. But Jon said police told him they were checking cell numbers and IP addresses to find who was responsible for this swatting.
"I won't forget it. I mean, I can tell you right now, I've had challenges sleeping ever since," said Jon. "we still have fear to this day. You never know when something like that is going to happen again."
Domino's did not answer questions about their app but did provide a statement:
"Anyone knowingly submitting false information to elicit a police response is committing a criminal act and should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, regardless of how they make that false report. Both Domino's and the independent franchise owner of the Domino's store where the order was placed that contained the fraudulent plea for help, are fully cooperating with the police officers investigating this crime and have provided them the IP address of the device used to place that order."