Editor's note: This article was written by a Townsquare Media Northern New England contributor and may contain the individual's views, opinions or personal experiences.

Have you ever heard of "swatting"? I hadn't, until I recently read a post from the Fremont NH Police Department reporting an incident.

The post said on the night of 02/24/2022, the Rockingham County Dispatch center received a 911 call that was reportedly from a Fremont resident. The caller said he lived on Midnight Sun Drive in Fremont, and that he had just shot and killed his mother. He also said he was going to kill his brother and then himself. The caller then hung up abruptly before any other information could be gathered.

Obviously, due to the serious nature of the call, Fremont, NH PD and multiple mutual aid agencies responded. The post said that the dispatcher tried to get the caller back on the phone, but they hung up. Upon arrival, officers established a perimeter, and dispatchers were able to get another phone number for the residence and contact someone in the home. It was found that no one in the home was injured or had been involved in the 911 call. According to the post, Fremont PD discovered upon further investigation that a juvenile in the home had been chatting with unknown individuals via a gaming app on his phone. The parties threatened to call 911 and make a false report, which they ended up doing. The juvenile got scared and removed the app from his phone and was unable to identify the individuals.

The post went on to explain that this type of prank or hoax is referred to as “Swatting”, and there have been multiple incidents in southern New Hampshire over the last several years. This was the first in Fremont. The Fremont Police Department ended the post by encouraging all parents to have a serious conversation with their children about internet safety. Encourage your children to never accept “Friend” requests from or engage in “chats” with anyone on social media, unless they actually know the person and can verify that the request is coming from that individual.

Swatting is a horrible prank, not to mention a huge waste of our communities resources. Hopefully there are no more instances of this in our area or anywhere else.

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