False 'Swatting' Call Sends Police Rushing To Maplewood Home Of Parents, Toddler

MAPLEWOOD, NJ — A scary phone call to the Maplewood police on Monday afternoon sent them rushing to the home of a couple and young child, but it turned out to be a false alarm.

Police Chief James DeVaul said that around 3:40 p.m. on Monday, the police non-emergency line got a call from someone saying that my “father just shot my mother in the face" and gave a street address. The caller then hung up.

Patrols surrounded the home and addressed the people inside via the vehicle's public address system. Police told the occupants of the home to exit. The residents were a couple and their toddler daughter.

"The call came as a complete shock to them," DeVaul said.

Patrols searched the home, but found no evidence of a crime.

A Nixle alert also had been sent out to warn residents of possible danger. It was updated when the call was determined to be false.

Detectives are investigating the call.

"Calls of this type are very serious and dangerous," DeVaul said. "It could easily have led to resistance, escalation, a use of force incident, extreme stress and anxiety for all involved."

He added, "I have great compassion and empathy for the residents who must have been so scared. MFD and EMS were dispatched and staged nearby until the scene was secure. There were no requests for medical attention made at the time by the residents."

He said, "I want to thank my officers for doing an absolutely outstanding job under the circumstances in the face of such danger and having the ability to de-escalate as the scene and incident details warranted."

'Phenomenon' Locally And Nationally

These types of "Swatting" calls have occurred in the area before. Last October, someone called Westfield police and said he "shot his father and tied up his mother in the bathroom" and gave an address in Springfield. Police rushed to that home, where they found nothing.

Swatting is defined in the Oxford dictionary as "The action or practice of making a prank call to emergency services in an attempt to bring about the dispatch of a large number of armed police officers."

However, this type of prank can have serious consequences, tying up workers who might be needed on another emergency, or causing an accident.

Making a false 911 call is also a crime, as the FBI notes on its page on Swatting. They say they first identified the "phone hacking phenomenon" in 2008.

The FBI says that in 2009, a 19-year-old hacker was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison in for making numerous "swatting" calls.

That man was released nine years later in October 2018, according to federal prison records.

Read more about swatting and its consequences in Wired.

Want to get a daily 6 a.m. roundup of news in Maplewood or somewhere else? Sign up with your zip code here and you'll get an email asking for your preferences.