March 13, 2011

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Ill. man's calls make Calif. SWAT team respond to bogus emergencies

Rigged his phone to make it appear on the police dispatch's caller ID display as if he were calling from San Francisco

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By Henry K. Lee
The San Francisco Chronicle (California)

MACHESNEY PARK, Ill. -- An Illinois man has been charged in federal court with using a caller ID spoofing system to fool San Francisco police into responding to fake emergencies, court records show.

Max Stringer of Machesney Park, Ill., was charged with four counts of making a threatening interstate communication by engaging in what is known among pranksters as "swatting" - getting police SWAT teams to respond to bogus incidents.

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Stringer rigged his phone to make it appear on the police dispatch's caller ID display as if he were calling from a San Francisco number instead of from his town of 20,000 people near the Wisconsin border, authorities said.

In one of his four prank calls last year, Stringer said he had a gun and was going to shoot a woman or responding officers, prosecutors said. In another, he allegedly said he had planted a bomb.

"On several occasions, defendant's swatting activities caused an armed police response to the supposed crime scene," prosecutors said in charging Stringer on Tuesday in U.S. District Court in San Jose.

Stringer also made hoax calls to "various police and other emergency service providers around the nation," prosecutors said without elaborating.

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