‘There are serious penalties’: FBI Pittsburgh highlights dangers of swatting calls

PITTSBURGH — It was a scene no one could forget when a massive police response descended upon Oakland last Wednesday.

“No parent should have to get these types of calls. This is a problem. I’m devastated. I thank god for his grace and mercy that nobody got hurt, that everything is OK,” Tankia told Channel 11.

Photos: Massive police response after active shooter hoaxes at Central Catholic, Oakland Catholic

Multiple hoax calls, called “swatting,” were reporting an active shooter at schools across our area. It sent parents and students into a panic as police descended on school campuses.

Previous coverage: ‘That’s all I felt, sheer terror’: Parents, students react to active shooter hoax at local schools

“All I really could do is cry, text my mom and try to figure out what was happening,” said September Rae Haston, who’s an Oakland Catholic freshman.

The FBI said swatting is part of a growing trend and the bureau is cracking down.

“There are serious penalties. Some of the interstate threats carry a five-year max penalty. Throw in an explosive device and it goes up,” said Mike Nordwall, the Pittsburgh FBI Special Agent in Charge.

While Nordwall can’t talk about this specific investigation, he said technology is making it more challenging to catch the culprits.

“They know what they are doing is wrong and so they will use technology to their advantage, but we do have resources, we have the people, we have the experts to work against that,” Nordwall said.

The issue is, law enforcement know it’s a hoax until the situation is investigated, so the mass police response can’t be scaled back until they know for sure the situation is not real.

“Anytime you divert critical resources, and it’s a fine number of resources, you open it up to real calls for service that can’t be handled in a timely manner, and that’s why we take this so seriously,” Nordwall said.

According to the FBI, a lot of these callers may not be local people. So what’s the motivation? The FBI told Channel 11 it’s difficult to put yourself in those shoes to figure out why a person would do that.

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