Beware Of ‘Swatting’ Prank On The Rise In New Jersey

We have another prank on the rise that is really concerning.  First I told you about the TikTok Orbee Challenge where kids were freezing jelly-like balls and doing drive-by shootings with them in airsoft guns causing injuries to people and property damage.  Before that, I wrote about “coning” or The Pothole Challenge where the new trend was for teens to remove traffic cones near potholes and then catch cars getting damaged on video as they drive into them.  Even worse, now in New Jersey, we are seeing “Swatting” on the rise and it's as serious as it gets.

Swatting is a prank that went viral back in 2008 and it is making a comeback.  If you haven’t heard of it, swatting is the act of making a false 911 distress call that is so serious that is constitutes a SWAT team.

USA Today even reported about this prank going on in New Jersey on this back in 2015.  This is such a terrible prank.  The cost involved to use all of that manpower is staggering and it is wasting our tax dollars for sure.

There were all kinds of panicked calls to 911 describing potential shootings, domestic disturbances, and even a claim that a teen killed her parents.  You can read about the specific calls in the Morristown Minute here.

These kinds of calls require more than just a police presence.  For events like these they also bring in investigators, federal agencies, and hostage negotiators, most likely pulling them away from their families in the middle of the night.

You would think that the perpetrators would be easy to catch with technology being what it is today but authorities say that it is actually very difficult to do so.  We’ve got to keep our kids busy and involved in a million things. Bored minds equal trouble. Pass this on to anyone with a teen is hopes of spreading awareness.

Have you seen these Ocean County Most Wanted criminals?