So one of my aunts told me this story that is just beyond crazy to me. Apparently my 13-year-old cousin was playing X-box 360 and he got into it with another player. The player said he was going to ‘‘swat’’ my cousin.
1:30am my aunt is awakened by a telephone call from the dispatcher telling her the house is surrounded by police and she needs to come outside immediately. She goes out and is surrounded by cops with weapons drawn. They received a 911 call stating that someone had been shot dead in the house. After talking with my aunt it becomes clear they received a false report, and they go away.
The next day, it happens a-fucking-gain. This time my cousin sees a bunch of police surrounding the house and calls his Ma so she can get home fast. He steps outside the door, wearing no shoes and no coat, and is immediately tackled to the ground - witnesses say violently - by the police. He is surrounded by armed men. He is terrified. This time the call said my aunt had been shot dead in the house. And when my aunt explains the situation a second time, the cops are basically like, ‘‘Yeah, this is going to happen a lot until they find out who it is.’’ Apparently my cousin was so upset by the experience that he is obsessively afraid the police will come back.
I’ve never heard of such a thing in my life. I wouldn’t even believe it if it didn’t happen to my aunt like this week. I guess the cops said it’s a trend in Las Vegas but they never saw it in Michigan before.
I’ve heard of this before, but I wouldn’t call it a prank. I haven’t heard of someone calling it in on the same house 2 days in a row. You’d assume the cops would be smarter than that, esp if it was in a decent neighborhood.
Intimidation and assault by proxy is a better description.
BTW - wasn’t clear from your story, I assumed they faked the ID, but maybe not.
It is VERY effective when they make the call - using the Caller ID info of the house itself. They have to fake this to do it. Usually done as hostage situation or something along those lines.
Look on the bright side -(not that their story sounds much better) at least they aren’t this guy:
The cops are in a no-win position - they have to respond to every call as though it is a valid emergency, or the time they don’t, it is an emergency and they get thoroughly roasted for not responding appropriately.
I agree that that is not funny, and it is not a prank - I hope they find out who the caller is, and throw the book at them. (I believe) it’s a crime to misuse emergency resources like that, and I hope the perpetrator pays.
I’m still not sure how that would work, though. If you look up my address via the IP address, it doesn’t even give you the right town (next city over instead, where our cable provider is), let alone a road or house number.
Sometimes it’s correct. Chances are that the kid was communicating outside of the game, using Facebook or other means he gave up his address or phone number, or at least enough info to find them.
I don’t understand how the police would respond the second time by assuming the call was real.
While I can understand they have to assume the call is real, I find myself boggled at the fact that they wind up tackling the kid. There’s already been one false report here, chances are it’s another false report - they have to take precautions, in case it isn’t, but tackling the first person to come out of the house seems a bit extreme.
I don’t know how that works, but I can see it happening if they didn’t know about the previous false alarm. These are cops that are very well-aware of things like the Sandy Hook shooter, and they get a report that a woman is dead, and a 13 year old boy comes out of the house - that was a very human assumption, to tackle the 13 year old.