From KOAT-TV.com - ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. —It’s called swatting. Swatting is when someone calls in a fake threat to get police to go to a person's house. Imagine police showing up at your home, pointing guns at you and you have no idea why. It's real, and it's happening in Albuquerque.
Police have released video of an incident this past month in which a terrified woman calls 911 and tells the dispatcher she has no idea why officers are pointing rifles at her from outside her home.
"Oh my God, he's pointing it right at me! I've got my hands up!" said the woman to the dispatcher. "They're asking that you step out with your hands in the air," said the dispatcher. "OK, please don't have them shoot me! I'm really scared!" said the woman.
Outside, police watched her every move. "Looks like I saw some kind of movement on the south side of the door," said an Albuquerque police officer. Eventually the woman walked outside.
Once police checked her for weapons, they explained why they were there: "We got a call there was a man inside the residence at your house and that he had killed his wife and was getting ready to kill his children, OK?" The woman had been swatted.
Albuquerque police said it was the second swatting prank that week. No one was hurt, but they say this is no laughing matter. Investigators think the same person is behind both swatting calls. At this point, no one's been arrested. If someone is caught, Tixier said they'd likely be charged with phone harassment and false reporting, and would spend just a few months behind bars.
APD said if you find yourself a victim of swatting, call 911 immediately. There have been a number of these pranks around the country in recent years. In some cases, people were seriously hurt. More
0 comments:
Post a Comment