FBI investigates prank SWAT calls in Snohomish County

EVERETT, Wash. (AP) — The FBI is investigating two cases in Snohomish County in which pranksters made false 911 calls to generate a massive police response.

The Daily Herald reports that detectives in Everett and Lake Stevens have been investigating two separate cases last year.

The prank is known as "SWAT-ing," or when someone calls police, usually implying that violence is underway, to get SWAT officers to respond.

In the Lake Stevens case last June, someone called pretending to be a 20-year-old video gamer and told police he had killed his father and was targeting his mother next. Police surrounded the parents' home with guns drawn but quickly determined that the parents were the victim of a cruel prank.

In the second case, a 911 caller told police he had just shot his mother. That caller gave a nonexistent location in Everett.