A 14-year-old Lacey boy is facing nine counts of false reporting to emergency services, otherwise known as "swatting," police announced on social media.
Swatting involves a prank call to 911 to generate a large police response at an unsuspecting residence or business.
The calls, which were made in March and April, erroneously reported the following incidents, according to Lacey police Sgt. Jeremy Knight.
Eight of the calls were in March and one was in April, he said.
"All of these calls created a large response to make sure everyone was safe at the reported addresses, all of which had no idea what had been reported," department officials said in the social media post.
The boy lives in the Summerwalk area of Lacey, which is a neighborhood north of Yelm Highway and between College Street and Ruddell Road.
Detectives spent months investigating and finally were able "to get multiple search warrants for the phone numbers used to make the calls in order to identify the suspect."
"The investigation led them to a local 14-year-old, who lives in the area of the addresses provided in the swatting calls. This allowed him to see the houses, so he knew information of someone that was 'on scene,'" the post reads.
Police said swatting creates safety risks, is a waste of time and money, and takes time away from those who have real emergency needs.
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