Crime & Safety
Deputies Respond with Show of Force to Hoax in Rancho Santa Margarita
The call for help came in via Skype in a false report known as "swatting."
What looked like serious police activity Wednesday evening in Rancho Santa Margarita turned out to be a hoax, Orange County Sheriff's officials said.
According to the blotter, the call came in at 7:08 p.m. Wednesday as a report that man shot his mother on Avenida de Los Fundadores.
Lt. Jeff Hallock said deputies were skeptical from the start.
"It was only a patrol response and we did not exert any additional resources because we believed that it was possibly a prank as it turned out to be," Hallock said.
The call came in through Skype from an unknown location, Hallock said. This type of hoax is known as "swatting," and is often used to send a large show of force -- and maybe even a SWAT team -- to a home. Past incidents included celebrities as targets, including Ashton Kutcher, Tom Cruise, Chris Brown, Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber and Clint Eastwood.
"It has happened all across southern California over the last several years," Hallock said.
In Wednesday's incident, "We were able to safely make contact with the homeowner and discover they did not make the call," Hallock said.
A new law makes such false reports illegal, punishable by a year in jail and fines.
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