Hudson police look for swatting incident caller

HUDSON, Wis. - Hudson police are still looking for the person behind a phony 911 phone call that sent authorities into high alert over the Labor Day weekend.
Authorities responded to a shooting complaint, only to eventually discover no such incident ever took place. Officers were called at 11:43 p.m. Saturday to the 1600 block of Pinewood Lane after a caller phoned the St. Croix County dispatch nonemergency line reporting that he had shot a woman in the face and had booby-trapped the door to the residence with explosives.
The call prompted a significant response from local law enforcement, including four Hudson police officers, six St. Croix County deputies, the Wisconsin State Patrol and EMS crews.
Authorities were on scene for about three hours searching the area and the home before it could be concluded the call was a fraud and the homeowner had no involvement with the call.
The so-called “swatting” cases - where callers phone in false reports of critical-stage incidents prompting a response by SWAT teams - have become more popular in recent years. A similar incident occurred earlier this year in Woodbury, Minnesota.
Jensen said it appears the call was placed using a Google-based platform, which makes it harder to trace than a call placed on a conventional phone line.