'Swatting' Hoax Sends Oakland Deputies on Early-Morning Call

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Sheriff’s officials were called to a reported hostage situation in Springfield Township early Tuesday morning that turned out to be a “swatting” hoax.

The Oakland County Sheriff’s Operation Center received a call at 1:41 a.m. on a non-emergency number from a male subject who advised he had just shot his girlfriend and was holding two hostages in the bathroom of a home in the 17000 block of Coventry Lane, according to a report.

The hoaxes are usually the work of a computer hacker who’s able to make it seem a call came from a specific address.

In the Oakland County case, the caller said he was standing by the front door of the home with a loaded shotgun and would shoot the hostages unless he could speak to a negotiator, but declined to give police either his name or a phone number.

The sheriff’s office responded and established a perimeter while the operation center obtained a phone number for the occupant of the address, a 50-year-old woman, who advised she was home alone and exited the home to speak with deputies.

She said she had been using the Internet earlier in the evening and had been communicating with people all over the world. One of the people she was chatting with, supposedly from Sweden, asked if she lived on Coventry Lane, police said.

Also on Patch

• Royal Oak Officers Latest Victims of ‘Swatting’ Hoax
• ‘Swatting’ Hoax Sends West Bloomfield Special Response Team to Fake Hostage Call