Police: False Emergency (or ‘Swatting’) Leads to Lock Downs at Three HV Schools

According to Wikipedia, Swatting is the act of tricking an emergency service (via such means as hoaxing a 9-1-1 dispatcher) into dispatching an emergency response based on the false report of an ongoing critical incident.

The Putnam County sheriff said that a false report of a hostage situation lead to lock downs on three school campuses and the closure of a road Thursday. Sheriff Donald B. Smith said in a news release that shortly after 10 am Thursday, a caller to the sheriff's office "reported that a woman and her son were being held hostage at gunpoint in a home in the Manitou section of Garrison, along State Route 9D". Smith went on to say that sheriff's deputies, state troopers, and Cold Spring police converged on the home and discovered that the reported hostage situation was fictitious.

The incident prompted officials at the nearby Garrison Union Free School and the Haldane Elementary and High Schools in Cold Spring to order precautionary lock-downs at those campuses. Route 9D was closed to traffic for about two hours in the Manitou area.

According to lohud.com Smith characterized the incident as an example of "swatting".

A false report like this one goes way beyond a prank – it is the product of a sick, twisted and criminal mind. Falsely reporting an emergency causes serious disruptions in a community and puts many innocent persons at risk as officers are responding rapidly to the call.

Investigators are trying to determine the source of the hoax.