{"id":24992,"date":"2022-09-14T15:50:54","date_gmt":"2022-09-14T19:50:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=24992"},"modified":"2022-09-14T15:51:03","modified_gmt":"2022-09-14T19:51:03","slug":"911-caller-claims-active-shooter-that-triggered-a-massive-response-fords-garage-restaurant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2022\/09\/14\/911-caller-claims-active-shooter-that-triggered-a-massive-response-fords-garage-restaurant\/","title":{"rendered":"911 caller claims active shooter that triggered a massive response Ford\u2019s Garage Restaurant"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Just before the dinner rush on Monday, Steve Holm\u2019s restaurant in north Lakeland was suddenly and inexplicably surrounded by police officers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere was a show of force with Lakeland Police Department at the front door and then as I looked out the window I saw that they had multiple units surrounding the property, all access points,\u201d said Holm, managing partner at Ford\u2019s Garage in Lakeland. \u201cI pray that I never experience anything like it again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Somebody had reported a fake mass shooting at the restaurant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHello, there is an active shooter,\u201d the caller said in the 911 recording.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNine people are hiding in the bathroom. Twenty-four people have been shot in the restaurant,\u201d the caller falsely went on to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While officers were on their way, the experienced 911 dispatcher began to get suspicious of the call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou keep saying 24 people have been shot. That\u2019s very specific. Did you see 24 people get shot?\u201d he asked the caller.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes, yes,\u201d the caller responded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were other red flags as well, according to police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNormally if you have a horrible situation like that, you\u2019re going to be receiving multiple calls in the call center,\u201d Public Information Officer Robin Tillett with the Lakeland Police Department said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was only one 911 call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Officers on scene kept customers and staff at Ford\u2019s Garage calm and cleared the building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cScared me to my core. The first thing I had to do was call my wife and tell her, \u2018hey everybody\u2019s OK\u2019 because we started getting questions that people had noticed on the internet,\u201d said Holm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Holm does not know why his restaurant was targeted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s people out there that just \u2014 doesn\u2019t make sense why they do the things they do. I can\u2019t quite wrap my head around it,\u201d he said. \u201cIt made me go home and get my son out of bed and give him a big hug.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What happened at Ford\u2019s Garage is called swatting. People call 911 with false claims of a crime being committed, sending large amounts of law enforcement officials to a specific location.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cIt is definitely a huge waste of resources, whether it\u2019s a few minutes or a lot of time there. It involves 911, officers responding to the scene, EMS, sometimes paramedics,\u201d said Tillett.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It can also pose a danger to officers and the public, Tillett added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnytime we have officers going lights and sirens to a scene, there\u2019s added concerns with vehicles on the roadway, especially at that time where people are starting to get off work,\u201d said Tillett.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tillett said Lakeland has not experienced any other incidents of swatting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Detectives are working to identify and arrest the 911 caller. Charges against them would include filing a false report to law enforcement, a third-degree felony.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just before the dinner rush on Monday, Steve Holm\u2019s restaurant in north Lakeland was suddenly and inexplicably surrounded by police officers. \u201cThere was a show of force with Lakeland Police… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24993,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[3400],"class_list":["post-24992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-911-caller-claims-active-shooter-that-triggered-a-massive-response-fords-garage-restaurant"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}