Police seek leads regarding Avalon swatting spree

AVALON — On Aug. 17-18, members of the Avalon Police Department were dispatched to calls on back-to-back days only to find the reports were hoax.

Avalon Police Chief Jeffery Christopher said that they received a call Aug. 17 about a bomb being located at a hotel near Dune Drive. Police and K-9 units cleared the building, and no bomb was found.

The following day, Aug. 18, a pair of calls reported that a murder had been committed along the 7700 block of Dune Drive.

Officers were dispatched to the Dune Drive property. They entered the residence without incident and found no evidence of a killing or hostage situation.

Later that day, police received another call — quickly determined to be a hoax — about a murder, hostage and bomb threat.

Christopher said this was Avalon's first incident of "swatting," a term used to describe these kinds of illegal pranks.

"All reports are taken seriously, as they must. It is necessary to (err) on the side of caution and take all necessary steps protect the possible victims of the alleged crime while also trying to determine if it is legitimate or a hoax," Christopher said. "The investigation and prosecution into the perpetrator of the hoax are just as important."

He added that swatting can be a hazard to police officers and others.

"The dangers are that first responders may unnecessarily proceed quickly to the false report of a crime in progress," Christopher said. "With any quick response there are dangers to the officers, and other drivers and pedestrians on the roadway. There are also dangers to the homeowners who will not know what is happening and why police have been called to their home."

When found, according to Christopher, the person who made the hoax call could be charged with creating a false public alarm. It can be charged as a felony and punishable with a prison sentence of five years or more, depending on the circumstances.

What is swatting?

Swatting was a term adopted by the FBI in 2008, according to the bureau's website. In the 1970s "phone phreakers" was the moniker used by a magazine reporting on a small group of techie troublemakers who were hacking into phone companies’ computers and making free long-distance calls.

Swatting is illegal and can carry different punishments depending on the severity of the crime, which is typically charged as creating a false public alarm.

Throughout the years, swatting calls grew in frequency when Twitch, a platform for influencers to stream gameplay live on the internet, launched. These hoax calls have on occasion led to the deaths of innocent victims who, in some cases, were not even connected to the person who was creating the false alarm.

What's the punishment for a swatting call?

According to a website for the law firm Chamlin, Uliano & Walsh , New Jersey has four different degrees when it comes to calling in a false public alarm:

• A fourth-degree offense is when someone knowingly calls to 911 for a non-emergency situation. The penalty is up to 18 months in prison and as much as $10,000 in fines.
• A third-degree offense is when someone calls in a warning of an impending fire, bomb or any sort of crime that is a false report. The penalty can be between three- and five years in prison and as much as $15,000 in fines.
• A second-degree offense is the same as the third-degree offense, but involves someone being physically injured. The penalty is a prison term of up to 10 years and as much as $150,000 in fines.
• A first-degree offense is similar to the second and third-degree offences but will involve the death of a person. The penalty can be up to two decades in prison and as much as $200,000 in fines.

The Avalon investigation is still ongoing, and police have asked anyone with information to come forward.

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Nick Butler is an impact reporter for the Courier Post, the Daily Journal and the Burlington County Times covering community news in South Jersey. Have any tips or stories? Reach out to NButler@Gannett.com. Subscribe to stay in the loop.

This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Police seek leads regarding Avalon swatting spree