{"id":1498,"date":"2007-10-19T03:28:13","date_gmt":"2007-10-19T03:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/sicence-technology\/man-hacks-911-system-sends-swat-on-bogus-raid\/1498\/"},"modified":"2007-10-19T03:28:13","modified_gmt":"2007-10-19T03:28:13","slug":"man-hacks-911-system-sends-swat-on-bogus-raid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/sicence-technology\/man-hacks-911-system-sends-swat-on-bogus-raid\/","title":{"rendered":"Man Hacks 911 System, Sends SWAT on Bogus Raid"},"content":{"rendered":"

Washington man accused of faking emergency call that sent armed response to unsuspecting Lake Forest family’s home.<\/em><\/p>\n

By SALVADOR HERNANDEZ<\/a><\/p>\n

SWAT officers expected to find a victim shot to death, drugs and a belligerent armed suspect when they surrounded the home of an unsuspecting couple, but found they were only a part of a false emergency call caused by a teenager who hacked into the county\u2019s emergency response system, authorities said.<\/p>\n

As officers swarmed the home with assault rifles, dogs and a helicopter, a Lake Forest couple and their two toddlers inside their home slept unsuspectingly.<\/p>\n

On March 29 at 11:30 p.m., authorities\u00a0allege, Randall Ellis, a 19-year-old from Mukilteo, Wash., hacked into the county\u2019s 911 system from his home and placed a false emergency call, prompting a fully armed response to the home of an unsuspecting couple that could have ended tragically.<\/p>\n

Thinking that a prowler was roaming his back yard, a resident of the home, identified only as Doug B. in the district attorney\u2019s complaint filed in court, walked outside with a kitchen knife as SWAT officers from the Orange County Sheriff\u2019s Department waited with assault rifles.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just a horrifying experience,\u201d said Doug B., who requested not to be identified further. \u201cYou think you feel safe in your own home. We had no idea what was going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doug B. and his wife did not feel safe in their home for weeks after the\u00a0incident and wondered why their home was the one selected.<\/p>\n

Doug B. was not able to go back to sleep for hours that night, and he rigged the doors and windows before he was able to go to bed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought someone was in my back yard, and they were going to get my family,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was terrifying for months afterward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Officers apprehended and cuffed the resident and his wife, identified as Stacy B. It was moments later they learned the call was false, said Lt. Mike McHenry of the South County Investigations Bureau.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe danger is significant,\u201d said Lt. Don Barnes, chief of police services for Lake Forest. \u201cThat (situation) played out OK, although it scared the victims significantly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ellis is expected to appear in an Orange County courtroom Monday to face charges of computer access and fraud, false imprisonment by violence, falsely reporting a crime and assault with an assault weapon by proxy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a prank,\u201d Emami said. \u201cPeople\u2019s lives were in danger.\u201d<\/p>\n

Farrah Emami, spokeswoman for the Orange County District Attorney\u2019s Office, said
\nEllis selected the couple\u2019s name and address at random and electronically transferred false information into the 911 system.<\/p>\n

Authorities believe this is not the only time that Ellis has done this. As part of their investigation, authorities believe Ellis created similar false SWAT responses in Bullhead, Ariz.; Millcreek Township, Pa.; and in his hometown of Mukilteo, Wash.<\/p>\n

False 911 calls are placed all the time, McHenry said, but he said this is the first time someone has hacked into Orange County\u2019s system and created a false call in this way.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen nothing like this,\u201d McHenry said. \u201cThis was unique. This was pretty serious.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other law enforcement agencies have seen similar breaches into their 911 systems as part of a trend picked up by computer hackers in the nation called \u201cSWATting\u201d, Barnes said.<\/p>\n

The purpose is to create a false 911 call that appears to be coming from the residence in question and prompt a SWAT response from local law enforcement agencies, Barnes said.<\/p>\n

Authorities would not divulge details on how Ellis hacked into the system, stating that doing so would jeopardize the investigation and possibly create copycats. But the call that prompted a full response to the Lake Forest home started as a call to the Orange County Fire Authority as a drug overdose and progressed into a possible murder, McHenry said.<\/p>\n

A supposed teenager stated someone had overdosed on cocaine. The teenager then stated he had been shot in the shoulder and that attackers were going to go shoot and kill his sister, he said.<\/p>\n

Canines, a helicopter and SWAT officers responded to the false call.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a pretty large response,\u201d McHenry said.<\/p>\n

Through electronic forensics, investigators were able to link Ellis to the false call, Emami said.<\/p>\n

Ellis does not appear to have a criminal record, Emami said, but it looks like he\u2019s done this before. He was taken into custody by authorities in Mukilteo on Friday. He waived extradition Monday in court and is expected to appear in Orange County Superior Court on\u00a0Oct. 22 for an arraignment hearing.<\/p>\n

Now Doug B. said he is hoping that the upcoming court proceedings can shed some light into why this happened and why his family was targeted.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy family is my life and to feel like its being threatened is horrifying,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Washington man accused of faking emergency call that sent armed response to unsuspecting Lake Forest family’s home. By SALVADOR HERNANDEZ SWAT officers expected to find a victim shot to death, drugs and a belligerent armed suspect when they surrounded the home of an unsuspecting couple, but found they were only a part of a false […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1498","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sicence-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1498\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}