The roommate of a man who is the apparent victim of a swatting hoax says being awoken in the middle of the night by a swarm of police officers was a terrifying and surreal experience.
Bran Jennex says he and his roommate are also puzzled and confused as to why their apartment was targeted.
At around 2 a.m. Monday, Jennex says Halifax Regional Police’s (HRP) Emergency Response Team came knocking at their door.
“Open the door, and the entire SWAT team is there. It’s like 10 guys — armour, with guns and rifles,” he said.
Police have since said that someone called 911 reporting they had shot their father and was holding their mother hostage at gunpoint.
Jennex says the scammer was impersonating his roommate.
But when police officers arrived on scene and evacuated the building, the young men living in the unit in question had no knowledge of the call.
“They were searching for a hostage that didn’t exist, and it’s like I haven’t even touched a gun, let alone owned one,” said Jennex.
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Jennex says he and his roommate were led out of the apartment building with their hands up.
He says they were then placed in handcuffs and had tense and confusing conversations with police officers until it was determined that the hostage situation was, in fact, a hoax.
Investigators have since determined the whole report was a scam, known as swatting. It’s a ruse aimed at scaring residents while tying up emergency personnel. Police have also said their investigation shows the initial call was made outside of Canada.
“If we get a report that somebody’s been shot, somebody’s being held at gunpoint, we are going to respond armed with a significant police presence,” said HRP spokesperson, Const. Martin Cromwell.
“So that’s going to not only cause a potential safety concern or threat, it could also be very traumatic.”
But that wasn’t the end of the drama.
Jennex says things calmed down until around 11 a.m. Monday, when pizzas started arriving at the apartment unit.
“From what I could tell, they called every single pizza place in Bedford and they had stolen my roommate’s name and they had actually taken his phone number and put it on the account,” said Jennex.
“And in the note section of the pizza, it would say, ‘I’m a hostage, help me.'”
He says seven pizzas arrived with the same message and they’re still trying to figure out how the scammers got his roommate’s information in the first place.
“I can’t think of anyone who would have such bad blood — it was just like, such a horrific lie,” he said.
With the investigation ongoing, police want to stress the seriousness of these types of pranks.
“If and when we’re able to determine the identity of the caller, criminal charges would likely follow,” said Cromwell.
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