Crime

Hoax Brings SWAT Team to Grosse Pointe Park Home

July 03, 2015, 6:56 AM

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Life can be stressful enough without hoaxes like this.

Paul Chesney of Grosse Pointe Park was home with his wife Carla and their 1 1/2-year-old baby on Thursday morning when he answered the door and saw a SWAT team on his front lawn.

 Grosse Pointe Park Police received a prank call that someone at that address had just killed his girlfriend and was holding two children hostage, Tom Greenwood and Candice Williams report in The Detroit News.

The prank is known as "swatting."

"It seemed like a dream. ... It wasn't even real," said Chesney, 37, in an interview on his front porch in the 1300 block of Lakepointe. 

"If it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone," he said Thursday evening. "There's no protection from being victimized by this sort of harassment. Somebody did this crap and got away with it."

Chesney said police told him the call came from the Internet and originated in California. Others in Michigan have been victimized, they said.

"We obviously took it as a very serious call, said GPP Police Chief Dave Hiller. "We received three different calls at about 5 a.m. stating that a man had killed his girlfriend and was holding two children hostage in a bathroom. The Chesneys have a 11/2-year-old daughter.

"Can you imagine answering your front door and finding a SWAT vehicle on your lawn?" Hiller said. "The homeowner and his wife came out and were taken into custody. We started talking to them in the station. They were shocked and fully cooperative."

Police have made no arrests.

Fox 2 News Headlines


Read more:  The Detroit News


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