A police SWAT team of over 60 armed officers surrounded a Long Island, NY home Tuesday after receiving a phone call from a teenager, who claimed he had shot and killed his mother and brother. However, it was soon discovered that it was the result of a prank phone call made by a Call of Duty gamer who wanted revenge on a player who beat him.
Using Skype, the prank caller phoned the police, claiming he was Rafael Castillio, 17, and said, “I just killed my mother and I might shoot more people.”
After a two-hour standoff, police found Castillo’s mother and brother alive in the house where nothing was amiss. Castillo was also inside the house, playing the online video game. Since he was wearing headphones, he did not realize all the commotion going on outside.
“He didn’t realize anything was going on; he couldn’t hear anything,” his brother said. “I told him that there’s a bunch of cops outside that are looking for you.”
Police then discovered the whole situation was a hoax. Authorities believe that a person who lost to Castillo on Call of Duty found the location of Castillo’s home by looking up his IP address. This prank is the latest one to occur in a new trend called “swatting,” where an individual reports a problem to the police and sends them to another person’s house.
“In this … bizarre world of swatting, you get points for the helicopter, for the police cars, for the SWAT team, for the type of entry,” Long Beach police commissioner Michael Tangney told CBS New York. “It’s very sophisticated. Unfortunately, it’s very dangerous.”
The cost of the response has been reported to be around $100,000. “If we determine who made this call, there will be an arrest,” Tangney said. “He did something so, so foolish, and so dangerous. I’m very angry — it’s a tremendous waste of taxpayer resources, it’s a tremendous danger to law enforcement.”
Police are currently trying to discover who made the phone call. “It was probably just an evil little kid,” one officer stated.
“There is a venue to try to recapture the information or identify the person — we are doing that now — but I’m not going to release the details of the investigation,” Tangney added.
