CLEVELAND—Police in Cleveland say a man who called 911 put the dispatcher on hold to make a drug deal.
Police say the 20-year-old man called 911 Saturday night to report that two men with guns were watching him near West 44th and Clark Avenue and hung up.
The dispatcher called him back, and during the call the man asked the dispatcher to hold on and made a drug deal.
A voice can be heard on the recording saying, “What you need? A 10-pack? A 10-pack, alright.“ A 10-pack is slang for a bundle of heroin.
The dispatcher called police, who saw the man crossing a street and found crack cocaine in his pants. The man, who didn’t have identification, was arrested and taken to jail.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Did you know SWAT team was called for a prank?
Doug Bates and his wife, Stacey, were in bed around 10 p.m., their 2-year-old daughters asleep in a nearby room. Suddenly they were shaken awake by the wail of police sirens and the rumble of a helicopter above their suburban Southern California home. A criminal must be on the loose, they thought.
Doug Bates got up to lock the doors and grabbed a knife. A beam from a flashlight hit him. He peeked into the backyard. A swarm of police, assault rifles drawn, ordered him out of the house. Bates emerged, frightened and with the knife in his hand, as his wife frantically dialed 911. They were handcuffed and ordered to the ground while officers stormed the house.
The scene of mayhem and carnage the officers expected was nowhere to be found. Neither the Bateses nor the officers knew that they were pawns in a dangerous game being played 1,200 miles away by a teenager bent on terrifying a random family of strangers.
They were victims of a new kind of telephone fraud that exploits a weakness in the way the 911 system handles calls from Internet-based phone services. The attacks — called "swatting" because armed police SWAT teams usually respond — are virtually unstoppable, and an Associated Press investigation found that budget-strapped 911 centers are essentially defenseless without an overhaul of their computer systems.
The AP examined hundreds of pages of court documents and law-enforcement transcripts, listened to audio of "swatting" calls, and interviewed two dozen security experts, investigators, defense lawyers, victims and perpetrators.
While Doug and Stacey Bates were cuffed on the ground that night in March 2007, 18-year-old Randal Ellis, living with his parents in Mukilteo, Wash., was nearly finished with the 27-minute yarn about a drug-fueled murder that brought the Orange County Sheriff's Department SWAT team to the Bateses' home.
In a grisly sounding call to 911, Ellis was putting an Internet-based phone service for the hearing-impaired to nefarious use. By entering bogus information about his location, Ellis was able to make it seem to the 911 operator as if he was calling from inside the Bateses' home. He said he was high on drugs and had just shot his sister.
According to prosecutors, Ellis picked the Bates family at random, as he did with all of the 185 calls investigators say he made to 911 operators around the country.
"If I would have had a gun in my hand, I probably would have been shot," said Doug Bates, 38. Last March, Ellis was sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to five felony counts, including computer access and fraud, false imprisonment by violence and falsely reporting a crime.
In a separate, multistate case prosecuted by federal authorities in Dallas, eight people were charged with orchestrating up to 300 "swatting" calls to victims they met on telephone party chat lines. The three ringleaders were each sentenced to five years in prison. Two others were sentenced to 2 1/2 years. One defendant pleaded guilty last week and could get a 13-year sentence. The remaining two are set to go on trial in February.
A similar case was reported in Salinas, Calif., where officers surrounded an apartment where a call had come in claiming men with assault rifles were trying to break in. In Hiawatha, Iowa, fake calls about a workplace shooting included realistic gunshot sounds and moaning in the background. In November, a teenage hacker from Worcester, Mass., pleaded guilty to a five-month swatting spree including a bomb threat and report of an armed gunman that caused two schools to be evacuated. more
Doug Bates got up to lock the doors and grabbed a knife. A beam from a flashlight hit him. He peeked into the backyard. A swarm of police, assault rifles drawn, ordered him out of the house. Bates emerged, frightened and with the knife in his hand, as his wife frantically dialed 911. They were handcuffed and ordered to the ground while officers stormed the house.
The scene of mayhem and carnage the officers expected was nowhere to be found. Neither the Bateses nor the officers knew that they were pawns in a dangerous game being played 1,200 miles away by a teenager bent on terrifying a random family of strangers.
They were victims of a new kind of telephone fraud that exploits a weakness in the way the 911 system handles calls from Internet-based phone services. The attacks — called "swatting" because armed police SWAT teams usually respond — are virtually unstoppable, and an Associated Press investigation found that budget-strapped 911 centers are essentially defenseless without an overhaul of their computer systems.
The AP examined hundreds of pages of court documents and law-enforcement transcripts, listened to audio of "swatting" calls, and interviewed two dozen security experts, investigators, defense lawyers, victims and perpetrators.
While Doug and Stacey Bates were cuffed on the ground that night in March 2007, 18-year-old Randal Ellis, living with his parents in Mukilteo, Wash., was nearly finished with the 27-minute yarn about a drug-fueled murder that brought the Orange County Sheriff's Department SWAT team to the Bateses' home.
In a grisly sounding call to 911, Ellis was putting an Internet-based phone service for the hearing-impaired to nefarious use. By entering bogus information about his location, Ellis was able to make it seem to the 911 operator as if he was calling from inside the Bateses' home. He said he was high on drugs and had just shot his sister.
According to prosecutors, Ellis picked the Bates family at random, as he did with all of the 185 calls investigators say he made to 911 operators around the country.
"If I would have had a gun in my hand, I probably would have been shot," said Doug Bates, 38. Last March, Ellis was sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to five felony counts, including computer access and fraud, false imprisonment by violence and falsely reporting a crime.
In a separate, multistate case prosecuted by federal authorities in Dallas, eight people were charged with orchestrating up to 300 "swatting" calls to victims they met on telephone party chat lines. The three ringleaders were each sentenced to five years in prison. Two others were sentenced to 2 1/2 years. One defendant pleaded guilty last week and could get a 13-year sentence. The remaining two are set to go on trial in February.
A similar case was reported in Salinas, Calif., where officers surrounded an apartment where a call had come in claiming men with assault rifles were trying to break in. In Hiawatha, Iowa, fake calls about a workplace shooting included realistic gunshot sounds and moaning in the background. In November, a teenage hacker from Worcester, Mass., pleaded guilty to a five-month swatting spree including a bomb threat and report of an armed gunman that caused two schools to be evacuated. more
Did you know three senior citizens were allegedly caught stealing from Costco?
Three senior citizens were allegedly caught red handed trying to steal from a Stockton Costco store, according to authorities.Dora Mae Lewis, Sandra Denise Williams and Susan Diane Lockette Gibson loaded their cart with liquor bottles and other items and attempted to walk out of the store without paying, according to the Stockton Police Department.When security confronted the three senior citizens, the situation became ugly."One of the females became combative with the employees that were trying to stop them," said Pete Smith from the Stockton Police Department. "She began swinging a full liquor bottle at one of the employees."As the confrontation escalated in the parking lot, another suspect allegedly tried to return the stolen merchandise back in the store.Police say the three ladies are now facing robbery and burglary charges.
Did you know a man died from his cell phone exploding?
A man has died after his cell phone exploded, severing a major artery in his neck, according to reports.
The man, thought to be a shop assistant in his twenties at a computer shop in Guangzhou, southern China, died after he put a new battery in his phone. It was believed that he may have just finished charging the battery and had put the phone in his breast pocket when it exploded.
According to the local Chinese daily Shin Min Daily News, the accident happened on Jan. 30 at 7:30 p.m. local time.
An employee at the shop told Chinese media that she heard a loud bang and saw her colleague lying on the floor of the shop in a pool of blood. The employee said the victim had recently changed the battery in his mobile phone.
Chinese authorities have yet to determine the make and model of the phone and its battery. Some reports indicated the store was a Lenovo shop, but it was thought that this might be because the shop advertised Lenovo computer products.
Police were investigating whether the phone and battery were counterfeit.
Did you know that Super Bowl fans in Tucson, Arizona 10 seconds of eye-popping pornographic imagery
(CNN) -- Super Bowl fans in Tucson, Arizona, caught a different kind of show during Sunday's big game.
Just as Cardinals' superstar Larry Fitzgerald watched himself sprint into the end zone on the stadium's Jumbotron during Sunday's Super Bowl, 10 seconds of eye-popping pornographic imagery "flashed" across the screens of those watching at home.
"We are mortified by last evening's Super Bowl interruption, and deeply apologize to our customers for the inappropriate programming," Comcast Cable said in a written statement.
"Our initial investigation suggests this was an isolated malicious act," the statement added.
Comcast, and several local television stations that carried the signal, say they are currently investigating what caused the interruption.
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"It appears this material was only viewed by some Comcast customers," local Tucson television station KVOA-TV said in a written statement.
Television station KVOA added "when the NBC feed of the Super Bowl was transmitted from KVOA to local cable providers and through over-the-air antennas, there was no pornographic material," KVOA President and General Manager Gary Nielsen said in a separate statement.
Just as Cardinals' superstar Larry Fitzgerald watched himself sprint into the end zone on the stadium's Jumbotron during Sunday's Super Bowl, 10 seconds of eye-popping pornographic imagery "flashed" across the screens of those watching at home.
"We are mortified by last evening's Super Bowl interruption, and deeply apologize to our customers for the inappropriate programming," Comcast Cable said in a written statement.
"Our initial investigation suggests this was an isolated malicious act," the statement added.
Comcast, and several local television stations that carried the signal, say they are currently investigating what caused the interruption.
Don't Miss
"It appears this material was only viewed by some Comcast customers," local Tucson television station KVOA-TV said in a written statement.
Television station KVOA added "when the NBC feed of the Super Bowl was transmitted from KVOA to local cable providers and through over-the-air antennas, there was no pornographic material," KVOA President and General Manager Gary Nielsen said in a separate statement.
Did you know that Octuplets' Mom Wants $2 Million From Oprah, Media Deals
The mother of octuplets born in California last week is seeking $2 million from media interviews and commercial endorsements to help pay the costs of raising the children, the Times of London reported.
Nadya Suleman, 33, plans a career as a television childcare expert. It was learned last week that she already had six children before giving birth to eight more. She now has 14 children younger than 8 years old.
Although still confined to a Los Angeles hospital bed, Suleman reportedly intends to talk to two influential television hosts this week — media mogul Oprah Winfrey and Diane Sawyer.
Her family has told agents she needs cash from media deals.
Suleman is being deluged with offers for book deals, TV shows and other business proposals, but according to her publicist she hasn't decided what she might do once she leaves the hospital.
On Friday she retained the Killeen Furtney Group public relations firm to handle what company President Joann Killeen says are hundreds of offers arriving daily. They include requests for paid interviews, TV show appearances, book deals and other opportunities.
Killeen says Suleman is "the most sought after mom in the world right now," but she hasn't decided what she'll do next, other than care for her children.
But Suleman's earning power could be diminished by the growing ethical and medical controversies surrounding her octuplets' birth. Experts believe that the unnamed fertility specialists who gave her in vitro fertilization (IVF) should not have implanted so many embryos, and in choosing to carry all eight to term, Suleman ignored guidelines, risking both the babies' health and her own. more
Nadya Suleman, 33, plans a career as a television childcare expert. It was learned last week that she already had six children before giving birth to eight more. She now has 14 children younger than 8 years old.
Although still confined to a Los Angeles hospital bed, Suleman reportedly intends to talk to two influential television hosts this week — media mogul Oprah Winfrey and Diane Sawyer.
Her family has told agents she needs cash from media deals.
Suleman is being deluged with offers for book deals, TV shows and other business proposals, but according to her publicist she hasn't decided what she might do once she leaves the hospital.
On Friday she retained the Killeen Furtney Group public relations firm to handle what company President Joann Killeen says are hundreds of offers arriving daily. They include requests for paid interviews, TV show appearances, book deals and other opportunities.
Killeen says Suleman is "the most sought after mom in the world right now," but she hasn't decided what she'll do next, other than care for her children.
But Suleman's earning power could be diminished by the growing ethical and medical controversies surrounding her octuplets' birth. Experts believe that the unnamed fertility specialists who gave her in vitro fertilization (IVF) should not have implanted so many embryos, and in choosing to carry all eight to term, Suleman ignored guidelines, risking both the babies' health and her own. more
Did you know that Firefighters Sent To Wrong Address--Again?
ATLANTA -- For the second time in a week, Atlanta 911 dispatchers sent firefighters to the wrong address.
Fire damaged a house on Howell Drive around 4:15 p.m. Sunday, but CBS Atlanta News learned that firefighters were sent to a location on Harwell Road.
CBS Atlanta obtained the recording of the call.
“Respond to number 66 Harwell Road northwest at Delmar Lane,” a dispatcher said.
Several minutes later, one of the firefighters corrected the dispatcher, letting her know the fire was on Howell, not Harwell.
“That's going to be on Howell, Howell Road at Martin Luther King Drive. Working fire, we’ll let you know when we get on the scene,” the firefighter said. more
Fire damaged a house on Howell Drive around 4:15 p.m. Sunday, but CBS Atlanta News learned that firefighters were sent to a location on Harwell Road.
CBS Atlanta obtained the recording of the call.
“Respond to number 66 Harwell Road northwest at Delmar Lane,” a dispatcher said.
Several minutes later, one of the firefighters corrected the dispatcher, letting her know the fire was on Howell, not Harwell.
“That's going to be on Howell, Howell Road at Martin Luther King Drive. Working fire, we’ll let you know when we get on the scene,” the firefighter said. more
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