17-year-old Ohio boy charged with 140 counts of delinquency in a nationwide 'swatting' spree that left police scrambling to phony 911 calls.
A 17-year-old Ohio boy was charged with 140 counts of delinquency — stemming from what authorities said is the latest in theThe teenager, whose name was not released because he is legally underage, allegedly placed numerous phony 911 calls in six jurisdictions across the country, including Ohio, Wisconsin and, prompting law enforcement agencies to mobilize SWAT teams and in one case shut down a major highway for several hours.
"I am thankful for the prosecution because we need to make sure that we send a message to others out there that might decide it's a good idea to try something like this," Dodge County, Wisconsin, Sheriff Dale J. Schmidt told ABC News on Wednesday. "It really does put lives at stake and puts them in jeopardy of serious harm by something as dumb as this."
After the incident was declared fraudulent, one of Schmidt's detectives launched an investigation and learned of similar incidents across the country, including one in Putnam County, New York, that sounded almost identical to the episode in Wisconsin. The sheriff's department's emergency response team established a perimeter around the house and using a key provided by a neighbor entered the home and "cleared both floors of the residence confirming that the home was unoccupied and there was no hostage or other emergency situation," according to the statement.
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