Three nights after falling prey to an elaborate 9-1-1 internet hoax, the Leone family in Springfield was breathing a sigh of relief.
Janice Leone tells Action News, "I mean, its' been pretty traumatic, but the police have been wonderful, the commissioner, everybody involved has really just been great."
On Wednesday night, an army of Springfield and other Delaware County officers including SWAT responded to a 9-1-1 call. The caller said a man in the 100 block of Cascade had just shot his two children, had barricaded himself in the house and was threatening to kill his wife. At the time, neither the Leone's or the police knew that they were pawns in a dangerous game being played several thousand miles away by someone as yet unidentified bent on terrifying a family.
With guns drawn, police ordered 46-year-old Steve Leone to come out of the house, at which time he was tackled and handcuffed.
Janice said, "He set a good example for my son by making sure he cooperated and did exactly what they said to do."
Police quickly realized what had happened.
Chief Joe Daly from the Springfield Police Department explains, "What we had here was an elaborate hoax."
They were victims of a new kind of telephone fraud called "Swatting". Due to bugs in the way 9-1-1 centers handle calls from internet-based sources, it's easy for pranksters to spoof the caller ID and appear to be calling from anywhere they please. It's called Swatting because usually the end result of these malicious calls is a Police Swat Team being sent to your home.
Ed Truitt, Director of the Delaware County Emergency Call Center, says, "We've been aware of Swatting for a while. We have never been Swatted - I guess that's the expression - until the other night."
Authorities say there has been a growing trend of these cyber false alarms known as Swatting with incidents being reported in a growing number of states. The Hoax 9-1-1 calls have caused great expense to municipalities and put the lives of innocent victims and police at risk.
Ed Truitt says the Delaware County 9-1-1 Call Center thought there was something fishy, because the call was being relayed through a company in Salt Lake City, Utah. They gave police a heads up that they may want to use caution, which they ultimately did.
"If we don't have a name or address as we do in a normal 9-1-1 call, our eyebrows are gonna raise," explained Truitt.
Meanwhile the victims are angry at the pranksters responsible:
And it's a horrible thing that these people do and we hope that they catch up soon," said Leone.
Next week, police chiefs from a number of municipalities in Delaware County will be meeting to discuss this dangerous tide called 'Swatting' and figure out how to respond to it.
