Full Notification

Nature of Incident: Multi-Jurisdictional “Swatting” Suspect Arrested in Camarillo
Report Number: Ventura County Sheriff’s Office #15-1485
Ocean City Police Department, New Jersey #15-1107
Ventura Police Department #15-777
Location: 1500 Block of Tierra Buena Court, Camarillo
Date & Time: March 17, 2015 at 10:00 AM
Unit(s) Responsible: Camarillo Investigations Bureau
(S)uspects, (V)ictims, (P)arty, (D)ecedent City of Residence
Male Juvenile Camarillo

Narrative:
On March 17, 2015 detectives from the Camarillo Investigations Bureau arrested a 13 year old Camarillo resident for reporting a false emergency, a practice also known as “Swatting.”

The term “SWAT’ing or Swatting,” is derived from SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics), which are known as a highly trained law enforcement officers who respond to incidents beyond the capabilities of normal patrol operations. “Swatting” is the act of calling in a false report to law enforcement that is of such an extreme nature, that the deployment of the SWAT team is usually required. These incidents have been used in the past as a prank or to harass the subjects who reside at the location law enforcement is responding to.

On January 20, 2015, deputies responded to the 1600 block of Bridgeport Lane, in Camarillo for a possible hostage situation. At approximately 4:40 PM, a male subject called the Ventura County Sheriff’s Communication Center and told them he was holding ten people hostage at the location. He demanded a large sum of money and said he would blow-up the house if his demands were not met. The caller described the type of weapons he had and the amount of explosives he was going to detonate.

The Sheriff’s Department deployed over eighteen units to the scene, some of which included members of the Sheriff’s SWAT team, several K-9’s and detectives. Deputies spent close to an hour securing the scene, until they realized this was a false report.

While detectives from the Camarillo Investigations Bureau were investigating this incident, they received information from detectives with the Ocean City Police Department, in New Jersey, that they were investigating a “Swatting” incident that occurred on January 15, 2015 in their city. Their investigation revealed the IP (Internet Protocol) address of the suspect was located in Camarillo, CA.

Detectives followed up on this information and developed a possible suspect in the case with ties to both the Camarillo and New Jersey “Swatting” incidents. They additionally learned of another “Swatting” incident that occurred on January 16, 2015, in the city of Ventura, CA. During that incident, the caller gave almost identical information to the Ventura Police dispatcher that he gave during the Camarillo incident.

On March 17, 2015, Camarillo detectives and members of the Southern California High Tech Task Force served a search warrant in the 1500 block of Tierra Buena Court, in Camarillo, and arrested a 13 year old male juvenile for Penal Code 148.3(a) / Reporting a false emergency. The juvenile was cited and released to his parent.

The Ventura County Sheriff’s Office would like to remind the public that any reported emergency is taken very seriously and responded to professionally. When we receive false reports of emergencies of this nature, it not only endangers the lives of the officers responding to the scene and the innocent parties at the locations, but takes emergency resources away from situations where they are truly needed.


Prepared by: Sergeant Pete O’Sullivan
News Release Date: March 17, 2015
Media Follow-Up Contact: Detective Gene Martinez @ (805) 388-5149
Approved by: Captain Cory Rubright