Posted on 04/22/2015 5:40:07 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A Machesney Park man is falsely accused of killing his girlfriend and holding a 7-year-old hostage.
It's called "swatting" and police say it's a growing trend. It's when a person calls in a fake police report with hopes of having someone else's home raided by law enforcement.
"I was sleeping, literally sleeping."
It was supposed to be like any other day for Drew Terpstra, that is until he opened up his bedroom door.
"I heard 'Police, police!' and I was like what's going on right now? I'm sleeping and all of a sudden, I get up, go out of my room and they're like 'get on the ground, get on the ground, hands up and all of sudden, I'm being shoved on the ground and handcuffed. They're like 'I hope this is some sort of joke,'" says Terpstra.
As he slept early Tuesday morning, the 23-year-old was unaware of the police presence outside has home. More than a dozen officers from four local departments had their guns drawn, all because of a phone call police received. The call was about an apparent homicide and hostage situation in Terpstra's house.
"We had our police response here because we have to take it seriously. As we got here and started to sort things out, it became obvious that it was not what it came in as," says Police Sergeant Doug Bushman with the Winnebago County Sheriff's Office. After being called by a neighbor, Terpstra's step-dad, Tim Delhotal rushed home to explain the impossibility of what they were told.
"I kept wanting to go in the house. They said 'you can't' and I'm like 'let me go in, I know it's fine.' So I gave them my keys and the garage door opener so they can go in both entries and then find out what I was certain was happening. Drew was in bed," recounts Delhotal.
Terpstra says he's glad that officers did their jobs and nothing went wrong, but unfortunately he says they were pulled away from much more important work.
Deputy Chief Scott Meyers says this is the second "swatting" call since December with all of the officers out on the scene, he says the call could have wasted a couple thousand dollars.
The Winnebago County Sheriff's Office has since followed up with the 9-1-1 call center to try to find the person who made the false report. Deputy Chief Scott Meyers says it can be time consuming and very difficult to trace, but not impossible. He says detectives are doing everything they can to find the suspect.
MACHESNEY PARK (WIFR) -- Hostage situations can be a tense and dangerous ordeal but in some cases, the person who police believe is holding a gun may not be armed or even know what's going on.
In one instance from Tuesday morning, a person was woken up by police presence surrounding his home.
It's called 'swatting'. It's where a person tricks emergency service using a false report to get police to head over to what they say is a critical scene -- and in this case, a homicide and hostage situation.
Winnebago County Deputies surrounded a house on Hawks View Drive in Machesney Park just after 8 a.m. Tuesday morning. Authorities were told Drew Terpstra had killed his girlfriend and was holding their seven-year-old daughter hostage. The problem is, the 23-year-old does not have a daughter or even own a gun. Police were allowed in after his stepdad arrived home and opened the garage door. A team then went in with their guns drawn and put Terpstra in handcuffs just to be safe.
"I was pretty pissed about it," says Terpstra. "I didn't know what was going on. I was getting arrested for who knows what I was just sleeping. It just sucked. That's the best way to put it."
After making sure the house was secure and the call was not true, deputies released Terpstra. He says he was a bit upset at the time. The 23-year-old says he does not know who would want to do something like this to him.
The Winnebago County Sheriff's Office is now searching for whomever made the false report. They say they have to talk with the dispatch center to try and trace the call.
This has happened often enough so that some vengeful screw-up MUST have been caught by now.
I would never alert the cops, but it would be better for the perp if the cops caught him before I did.
I’m a firm believer in using a bat in such situations, so as not to put anybody’s 2A rights at risk.
How about tied to a tree and flayed with a weedeater?
Great question, and my strong answer is NO, I'm not ok with that at all.
I feel deeply sorry for the people raided in THIS case, and in very many other cases --I think it's terrible, dangerous, wanton. I think it's incredibly irresonsible and un-funny.
But there's more:
The problem has become MUCH bigger than these victims here, and these particular irresponsible perps who pulled this.
There are ALWAYS going to be hackers, and we do need to know more about their terrible crimes.
The problem is that even TINY little towns have well-paid, fat NUTS who can't run a 1/2 mile and got few dates in high-school, going around in dress-up, pretending like they're on SEAL Team 6, kicking doors down and waving machine-guns around.
They have Bearcats, APC's, and sometimes MRAP's. They have all kinds of tactiCool stuff.
They're bored GEARDOS, basically.
There's too much funding and too much gear for this adult man PLAYTIME.
So far the victims are mostly poor or middle-class, and when some high-profile, liberal gummint people instead becomes victims, then there will come a small chance of stopping all this, or at least a big part of this.
SWAT TEAMS HAVE BECOME **TOYS**.
They'll deny that a trillion times and cite all kinds of "safety need" nonsense, but that's the truth.
They're the toys of cops, and the bad guys, too.
Should the trend continue gradually, as it is, or more suddenly? That’s a good consideration to ponder. Sometimes, fewer people are harmed when suddenly confronted with obvious danger instead of being incrementally adjusted to it.
What sort of ignorant, half assed, Barney Fife numbskulls would base a dynamic entry operation on an anonymous call? Did a judge sign off on this?
I like the idea of mandatory 30-year prison term for those who call in “swatting” attacks.
In the saner world I grew up in, an anonymous tip would be responded to by dispatching a patrol car with a couple of officers who would knock on the door and find out if there was really a problem.
I would doubt there was a warrant. They can always justify it on “reason to believe a felony is in progress”. No officials will be punished, you can bet on that.
In Fairfax County, VA a man legally carrying a pistol was Swatted. The Fairfax County Police arrested the caller and a couple weeks ago a liberal judge let him go saying there was not enough evidence pointing to prove he was the caller.
I was going to point out that E911 routing is much more difficult to trace than a regular IP switch call.
i see no information regarding what prompted the event.
don’t they have the caller-id of the one that called it in?
did they knock on their door?
what’s their name?
where are they?
have charges been filed?
if none of the above... this sounds more like a false flag event staged by those trying to push the police state
Ah....
and THAT is where the bat enters the picture.....
The cops love it. They get to dress up and play soldier, get overtime, and shoot a few dogs or old men defending their property. Liberals love it because they can have hired goons perpetrate the violence they are too cowardly to commit themselves.
I don’t think SWAT teams should be used without the written authorization of an elected official.
Our local dispatch center has actually trained to sniff out SWATTING prank calls before the cops get there. I’ve heard them dispatch cops to supposed murder calls and start advising the officers about inconsistencies in the stories being told and lack of prior calls to the residence.
It usually ends with the cops saying, “We have talked to the resident and done a voluntary walk through with nothing found.”
Well trained dispatchers will help reduce this problem.
Anyone who pulls a stunt like this should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. It should be a major felony, carrying a 5-year sentence at least.
Basic detective work is a relic of the past. The informant doesn’t identify themselves. Strike one on credibility. The cops made no apparent effort to gather their own intel on the supposed criminal or the target premises. Strike two. They even reject counter intel on the subject from a relative who appears in person to vouch for him and offers to enter and contact the subject. Strike three.
Did they even try calling the guy on the phone? Wouldn’t that be step one in a potential hostage situation?
I assume on point 3 they wouldn’t send a civilian in because of the risk. Obviously it would have been better if they called, but I guess they wanted the element of surprise.
Well, they got that. I hope Mr. Terpstra surprises them with a lawsuit. The police ought to be a little more than trained attack dogs that you point at a target and say “sic ‘em!” Especially when anyone can say “attack.” Some yo yo in Romania could have made the call as a prank.
“What sort of ignorant, half assed, Barney Fife numbskulls would base a dynamic entry operation on an anonymous call? Did a judge sign off on this?”
Well, by going to the website pulled of the back of the car in post #2, it looks like the “Barney Fife” is Deputy Cheif Scott Meyers. There’s a picture of him at the sheriff’s website that matches him in the photo in post #2. So he’s the overweight guy leaning over the car sporting the drop leg holster and holding his pistol sideways like a gang member. Obviously he’s just anxious for all the drama since he failed to recognize all the other reasons that the thing was a hoax. To his credit, he didn’t bust down the door, charging in guns a blazing, flash bangs and all. One of these times when that happens they’re be an occupant who reacts reflexively, laying on the floor unloading a 12ga at what he awakes to as a home invasion.
Barney Fife better get hassled to no end over this.
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