Two teens from the United States have been arrested in connection to “swatting” incidents that were being investigated by South Simcoe Police and the FBI.
According to police, the two male youths were arrested last week by American authorities for allegedly committing 70 swatting incidents in Canada and the U.S. Det. Const. Kai Johnson of South Simcoe Police says seven of those incidents happened since September to a Bradford family.
“In one occasion they were called out of the house by armed police officers under gun point,” says Johnson. “We reacted in the right protocols and that family is traumatized forever from that.”
Police say swatting is a term used to describe prank calls that send out a SWAT team. These calls usually involve a claim of a hostage taking, home invasion or bomb threat.
In this case, police discovered the calls were coming from the U.S. and worked alongside the FBI and other agencies to arrest two teenage boys from Ohio.
“The calls South Simcoe received was a home invasion, a hostage situation with a gun, another break and enter in progress with a gun, two bomb threats at a local high school in Bradford and a couple threatening calls that were specific to a local address.”
The accused will go through the court system in the U.S., but at this point the charges have not been finalized, however they could include felonies such as criminal harassment.
