'Swatting' Prank Terrorizes Hudson Resident
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) - A Wisconsin dad enjoying a CBS crime show on TV suddenly found a real-life drama on his doorstep.
Law enforcement swarmed Kevin's apartment complex in Hudson on Saturday night. He didn't his last name published.
Someone had called police there about a deadly shooting.
But investigators discovered it was all a prank known as "swatting." It's a joke that's left no one in the neighborhood laughing.
It was after 11 p.m. on Saturday night.
Dispatchers over the radio said: "Male shot a female in the face with a shotgun, don't know her status, and this is a highly unsafe situation right now."
That is the call that put Hudson police into action. Over the radio, traffic continues: "He's still at the residence. He's saying if you come near him, he's going to start shooting and has the door booby-trapped with C4."
Chief Marty Jensen of Hudson said Monday, "If we get calls like this, we're responding very, very, very cautiously because you never know if it's going to be an ambush situation."
As is standard, a number of agencies answered the Saturday night call -- SWAT, local officers, troopers.
"We had to shut down city streets," Jensen said. "We had five other agencies that were helping us out. We had a lot of manpower for this incident."
The caller said he lived in a Hudson neighborhood, but when police arrived at the caller's address, they found Kevin, a single dad who was home alone, quietly watching NCIS after a day at the fair.
"If I would not have answered my phone, they were going to come through my door," Kevin said.
It seems the caller was "swatting," faking a call, pretending to be Kevin, trying to get SWAT teams and officers to respond.
"It's to try to get the cops all riled up, get them to one location and watch their tactics to see what they do, but it's not funny," Jensen said. "It's a waste of time, it's a waste of money."
It took a three-hour search of Kevin's house to verify it was a prank.
"This isn't just a single person that you've affected," Kevin said. "You little punks, cockroaches, come visit me. I dare you, come visit me."
Jensen said they've seen swatting a few times in the area. He says it is a crime. They plan to find out who did this and ask them to pay back the city.
The chief says Labor Day weekend is a busy time for DWI and various calls, so taking officers away made for a dangerous situation.
