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A Fair Lawn police dispatcher heard what sounded like gunshots and people crying in the background as a caller claimed that he'd shot his mother and was holding two siblings at knifepoint.
Fair Lawn patrol units and tactical officers immediately converged on Roosevelt Place at Berdan Avenue, where the call purportedly originated shortly after 9 p.m. Thursday, April 27.
They were joined by Elmwood Park police and Bergen County sheriff's officers.
A call for a Bergen County Regional SWAT team was quickly canceled, however.
That's because the call was bogus.
A swatter had struck again.
Police checked every house on the block and declared the call unfounded in barely 20 minutes.
Swatting exacts a toll on innocent residents, which is usually the intent. Often public figures and celebrities are the targets. Sometimes it's more an effort to tie up law enforcement, authorities said.
Deploying SWAT teams, ERT units and additional personnel to unsuspecting victims’ homes and businesses diverts resources from potential areas of critical need, they say.
Many of the culprits call from out of state -- and sometimes even out of the country. They use programs that make it seem that the calls are coming from inside a particular house, school or other location.
Fair Lawn police are investigating the source of Thursday night's call.
Boyd A. Loving took the photo and contributed to this report.
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