Dumont hostage situation a hoax

CLIFFVIEW PILOT EXCLUSIVE: Detectives are already searching for the 911 caller who brought a SWAT team and phalanx of police officers to a quiet Dumont block on a bogus report that a man had barricaded himself inside with weapons. Inside they found the man who lives there — asleep, CLIFFVIEW PILOT has learned.

Jerry DeMarco

01/27/2012 7:57 p.m.

CLIFFVIEW PILOT photos (No re-use without hyperlink)

The emergency call brought the Bergen County Police Department SWAT team members, officers from various departments and emergency medical techicians to Grant Avenue and Hillcrest Drive, off Knickerbocker Avenue, in the east end of town.

It also sent the nearby Grant Middle School into lockdown. Parents were summoned to pick up their children.

“It was a prank,” an officer with direct knowledge of the situation said. “An investigation is now under way to determine who made the call. It involves Dumont and Cresskill police.”

Charges against those caught will including causing a false public alarm.

The 911 call appears to have been made from an older-model cellphone, another source told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

Adding to the confusion: The Bergen County Medical Examiner sent a unit to a nearby neighborhood for an unattended death around the same time, leading to reports of a fatality at the Grant Avenue home.

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