Report of Armed Intruders Locks Down Putnam Neighborhood Friday Night

PUTNAM LAKE, NY – Putnam County Sheriff Donald B. Smith advises that a man’s call reporting armed intruders at a home in Putnam Lake prompted a large police response overnight. The call proved to be false — and the man who called has been arrested.

John Sheehan, 28, of 15 Jerome Drive in Putnam Lake, faces a misdemeanor charge in the case.

At about 11:20 P.M. Friday, sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to a 911 call in Putnam Lake, where they encountered Sheehan. He told them that he was dog-sitting for a friend in the same neighborhood, had just gone to the friend’s house to walk the dog and saw several persons inside the house who were armed with firearms and wearing masks. He said he fled from the house and ran to another friend’s nearby residence, from where the 911 call was made.

Sheriff’s deputies and state troopers responded to the Hanover Road house, where they cordoned off a perimeter around the residence. Heavily armed members of the Putnam County Emergency Response Team were also dispatched to the scene. The Hanover Road neighborhood was locked down for about two hours during the incident.

Upon further investigation, police determined that Sheehan’s report about the armed intruders was false.

Investigators charged him with falsely reporting an incident in the third degree, a class A misdemeanor, a charge punishable by up to a year in jail upon conviction.

During the booking process, Sheehan made statements to investigators that were suggestive of his being in an altered mental state; consequently, authorities released him on an appearance ticket and transported him to the Putnam Hospital Center in Carmel for evaluation and further observation. He will be arraigned in Patterson Justice Court on the criminal charge at a later time.