This isn’t the first time a swatting call brought police to this Miami home. The homeowner said his wife has had nervous breakdowns since the first time this happened, when police showed up guns drawn. “We don’t feel safe in our home,” he said. NBC6’s Bri Buckley reports.
Police responded to a Miami home after receiving reports from a man who said he'd slashed his girlfriend's throat--only to realize the call was fake.
The family at the center of it all says they're traumatized, as this is the second time they've been the target of what police call "swatting," when calls about a fake emergency are made to prompt a large 911 response.
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WATCH HERECity of Miami police said they got the call to respond to the home at 8:50 a.m. on Aug. 4.
"Once we get this call, all our officers are dispatched to this address," Public Information Officer Michael Vega said. "Our officers are on high alert, thinking that there's somebody that's armed, and that there's someone that's seriously injured."
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Vega said when officers arrived to the residence, they started knocking on doors and windows, but received no response.
"So [the officers are] thinking the worst," Vega said. "They're thinking somebody is dead inside, somebody is ambushing us."
He said police looked through windows and saw that the home looked unoccupied and nothing was in disarray. Then they got a ladder to look through second floor windows, and removed the window screen to be able to see properly. A piece of the screen broke off during that process, an incident report describes.
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When they felt confident that no one was hurt, "they were starting to retreat when the victim shows up and says, 'What's going on?'" Vega said.
One of the owners came home after her cameras picked up motion, and she informed officers that she was also a victim of a 911 prank call in April, according to the incident report.
During that first incident, police showed up while she and her husband were working remotely after receiving a call about a man who had hurt his mother with a hammer.
Her husband told NBC6 about that scary moment, when officers banged on his doors and pointed guns at him from the window.
Then they came inside and started clearing the rooms.
"They had me sitting in the backyard of my house, pointing their guns at me, and they're all asking questions, and later they seemed to realize... that nothing's happening," he said. "That's when they tell me, 'This is something called swatting,'"
The victim's wife has suffered nervous breakdowns since that first call. She is European and had not seen a gun before authorities burst into her home, her husband explained, and thought they were being robbed.
"We don't feel safe in our home," he continued.
Detectives are searching for the person behind the dangerous calls.
"If the victim was there when we got there, we would have to take them out at gunpoint, have them lay on the floor, while we determine what had actually occurred," Vega said. "It's something that we don't take lightly."
Police say it can cost taxpayers thousands of dollars every time a SWAT team is called out. The PIO said whoever is behind the calls could face jail time and restitution for the resources expended.
"We will find out who you are, and you will be arrested," he said.
