Police Believe a New Culprit is Behind Princeton Swatting Incidents

Princeton Police believe whoever is calling in fake bomb threats to schools in the district is different than the person who was responsible for last spring’s ‘swatting’ incidents, the Princeton Packet reports.

Calls in the spring were done using a pre-recorded message, while recent calls have been “more interactive,” with the caller using a voice synthesiser, officials told a group of residents who gathered at a community forum on the issue at John Witherspoon Middle School last week.

Police believe the most recent incidents come from members of the online gaming community, who are playing a game in which they score points for the amount of havoc they cause, according to the report.

The forum was called following an incident at Johnson Park Elementary School on Oct. 20.

It was the fourth incident since the school year began, but the first since Sept. 30, when a threat was called in to John Witherspoon School.

Similar calls were received last month at Princeton High School and Riverside Elementary School. Each of those incidents, as well as a rash of ‘swatting’ incidents that plagued the town earlier this year, were all determined to be unfounded.