San Mateo police responded to a call about a barricaded person with a gun in the area of 28th Avenue and Garfield Street on Wednesday and learned the call was fake, calling it a criminal act of “swatting.”
Swatting aims to deceive dispatch into sending a police and emergency service response team to another person’s address.
Officers put out an alert shortly before 3:30 p.m. that the area around 28th and Garfield had been cleared, then subsequently updated the alert to indicate the call was fake.
“A criminal investigation has been initiated against the suspect(s) and they will be brought to justice,” Michael Haobsh, spokesperson for the San Mateo Police Department, stated in the update.
Further details about the case were immediately known.
Photo credit: San Mateo Police Department
