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‘Swatting’ a high-tech trend in 911 hoaxes
SUNDAY, JULY 31, 2011
BY SHAWN BOBURG
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
A California couple with a 2-year-old daughter is awakened late at night by heavily armed police storming their home after a false report of a shooting.
A Texas family is stunned when officers with automatic weapons respond to their house expecting a drug-fueled murderer who is demanding $50,000 in exchange for hostages.
And a Wyckoff neighborhood is put on lockdown as the Bergen County SWAT team shoots tear gas into what proves to be a home occupied only by a cat.
In each case, the people who wound up in the crosshairs were actually victims of a dangerous and increasingly common hoax known as “swatting,” so called because a bogus emergency call prompts the response of a SWAT team.
https://www.northjersey.com/news/126473378__Swatting__a_high-tech_trend_in_911_hoaxes.html
