911 Prankster Sentenced to 3 Years in Jail

A 19 year-old Washington state man has been sentenced to three years in jail for making a prank 911 call to the Orange County (Calif.) sheriff’s comm center, sending heavily-armed officers to an innocent family’s home in March, 2007. Randal Ellis was also ordered to pay $14,765 in restitution to the sheriff’s office and the city of Mulkiteo for the costs of the false response. Ellis pleaded guilty last year to five felony counts, including computer access and fraud, false imprisonment by violence and falsely reporting a crime. Investigators say Ellis may have made up to 200 other phony 911 calls using a VoIP telephone line, which masked the origin of his calls when he called dispatchers in other cities. The practice is called SWATing for the response pranksters hope will result from their calls. In the Orange County case, the family was unaware that officers had surrounded their house at 11:30 p.m. But when the father heard a noise, he armed himself with a knife and went outside, narrowly escaping injury from officers who confronted him at gunpoint. Read more about the sentencing here.