Posted on 04/23/2015 3:08:56 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Officers in Framingham, Mass. swarmed a home Tuesday morning with guns drawn, shouted for its residents to come out, searched inside — and then realized the bust was a bust.
This home was the latest victim of "swatting," a prank where an anonymous caller tricks police into sending a heavy presence to a quiet home that has no crime happening inside.
In this case, Framingham resident Irandi Waighe and her 96-year-old mother-in-law — who is a double amputee in a wheelchair — were the ones awakened to a false alarm.
The call came in around 8 a.m. from a blocked number. The caller, who identified himself as "Peter," spoke in broken English while telling police he was holding his family hostage and was going to shoot himself, the MetroWest Daily News reported.
Police rushed to the home, prepared to handle a hostage situation. A confused neighbor filmed the scary scene, in which some officers were holding machine guns.
Waighe and her mother-in-law awoke in a panic and were as confused as everyone else in the neighborhood.
"'Wow, so many police. Wow, so many cops. What's happening?'" Waighe told MyFoxBoston, recalling her thoughts when she saw the officers outside.
But once she stepped out and let the officers come in for a search, everyone realized it was a prank.
"Of all places, why'd they pick this?" said Waighe's bewildered mother-in-law, who didn't give her name.
t's unclear how many officers overall responded to the ersatz emergency.
Framingham Police have no idea who pranked the home or why, according to MyFoxBoston. A spokesman for the department was not available for comment.
Framingham Police received another swatting call earlier this month, in which officers handcuffed a suspect who supposedly threatened to harm cops before they realized it was a hoax, the MetroWest Daily News reported.
In recent years, the homes of Tom Cruise, Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, Rihanna and several other celebrities saw swatting situations.
Been there, done that. Neighbor (town official, no less) with an ax to grind had my wife and I swatted here in soviet Red Hampshire...the only reason I am still here is because we were outside when the cops rolled up.
It happened to a friend of mine - they never found the perp.
sickening
That is a very interesting perspective...
We KNOW who the damn perp is in our case, but no one will do a damn thing.
Nope. Skype over a cell phone or wifi at McDonalds masks the phone numbers.
Liberals have been sharing this little tip in the cesspools of DU to ‘swat’ conservatives and gun owners.
“Been there, done that. Neighbor (town official, no less) with an ax to grind had my wife and I swatted here in soviet Red Hampshire...”
Did something bad then happen to the neighbor?
I have read stories of leftists calling for their followers to do this to conservatives, and they seem to want us dead.
It’ll be murder by John Doe or proxy, as previously mentioned.
“It was always a degenerate dump with a couple of nice areas.”
AND, a world-class cardiovascular study! ;)
To this day; we have NO IDEA why this was done to us.
I think post 21 says it pretty well. Leftists are evil and vindictive and I can see this becoming an accepted practice for their side more and more.
No. God hasn't responded yet. :-)
I’m more resilient; but the ‘incident’ damaged my wife’s health. This was 18 months ago, and she still gets upset if I mention it.
I would make damn sure the neighbor knew not to ever try it again.
Look, a simple solution to this is a police policy that forbids a SWAT response based on an anonymous call from a blocked phone.
They either get a name from the caller, or they get a caller ID. While they can act on an anonymous tip, in support of other investigative evidence, it is just insufficient for a raid of a private residence.
Spoofing ID via VoIP is a little more difficult to trace.
Nice property...sick of snow after this last winter, though...
Do you think it would get too boring out there? I bet a really good internet connection would help.
:p
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