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SWATting the Ericksons

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  May 27th, 2012 at 08:42 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Last week we spent a lot of time writing about Brett Kimberlin and the incident involving blogger Patterico where someone spoofed his phone number and told 911 he had shot his wife.

Tonight, my family was sitting around the kitchen table eating dinner when sheriffs deputies pulled up in the driveway.

Someone called 911 from my address claiming there had been an accidental shooting.

It wasn’t nearly the trauma that Patterico suffered, but I guess the Erickson household is on somebody’s radar.

Luckily it was two sheriffs deputies who knew me and I had already, last week, advised the Sheriff’s Department to be on the look out for something like this.

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  • standingonthewall

    Glad to hear you’re OK. Very smart move calling the Sheriff’s Office in advance :-) Keep up the good work. So appreciated!

  • zachv

    Almost. You can’t put anything past Leftists bullies like you blogged about.

  • http://teapartisan.wordpress.com Loren Heal

    That is, suppose it was the one night a year when one of the kids throws a tantrum or the two of you were fighting, as every couple with active EEGs do. Deputies pull up, hear the fight, and think “That Erickson executed a clever reverse-wolf-cry on us!”

  • westcoastpatriette

    So glad you took precautions and all is well.

    It’s time to go after these people. Swatting should be treated like a felony and investigators should be able to do a full-on investigation including tracing down the calls until the perps are caught and prosecuted.

  • Kyle-MI

    This is not some little prank. This is domestic terrorism and in a way one step worse. With usually domestic terrorism, the perpetrator commits the act. This is garbage, they are using law enforcement to do their dirty work. It is both terrorism and its undermines the system of law enforcement.

    I do not use this word lightly, but this is evil.

  • ohiohistorian

    What do you think, Erick? Do you think they will even try to investigate? Or are they likely to have a (D) Sheriff who will not bother to investigate the SWATing of a right-wing “nut”? I know that here in Franklin CO, I wouldn’t hold out a lot of hope.

  • Wubbies World

    What can legally be done to catch and prosecute these people? What will the law enforcement officials reach the point when they will actually TRY to catch and prosecute these people? When someone dies?

  • littlehouse18

    So glad you are all ok, Erick.

    Why hasn’t this been in the media????

  • windwaker24

    I hope something gets done about this. Glad you’re OK!

  • Jack_Savage

    As long as the crime is perpetrated against conservatives.

  • greyeagle

    I am afraid if they get away with attacking conservative bloggers who are telling the truth like you. Take a lot of precautions and be safe.

  • jakeofalltrades

    This is hard-core stalking behavior. May God protect you.

  • http://jakespeaks.wordpress.com/ Jake Walker

    Those guys are gutless. This is what we’re up against.

  • smagar

    I doubt he’ll be much help.

  • Mike Ferguson

    The good news behind this, if good is the right word I can’t think of a better one right now, is that you are making them nervous or they would just ignore you. It really is scary that you can hardly find anything out about this guy on the net, even though he is a convicted terrorist. This seems to be one of those cases where being in the system helped him understand how to manipulate the system.

    God Bless my friend.

  • http://pocketchangeproductions.net/ anotherindyfilmguy

    And I think the F.B.I. should be involved in making that happen.

  • macbookben

    …that is my sincere exhortation.

  • http://www.800cart.com Ron Robinson

    Forewarned is…

  • kcom

    It should. It’s clearly an interstate conspiracy and not simply a local matter.

  • http://www4.webng.com/rickbull/lostlucky/ rickbull

    stick your index fingers in your ears and sing “Mary Had a Little Lamb” at the top of your lungs. That’s what the MSM is doing with this story.

  • http://www4.webng.com/rickbull/lostlucky/ rickbull

    of a crime IS a crime. Some PD’s take it very seriously, and some just brush it off. So long as it’s not happening often enough to water down their ability to respond to calls, most don’t give it much shoe leather. When using law enforcement as a weapon becomes epidemic, and the news media can’t ignore it anymore, it will get the legwork it deserves, but not until.

  • BlueLandRed

    I really hope you aren’t implying that Eric needs his gun against sheriff.

    Because he’s certainly not going to need them to defend himself against the anonymous cowards that started this “prank”. If you take away their anonymity those cowards will run like cockroaches they are when the light is turned on. They aren’t dangerous… well, unless they convince you to pull a gun on the sheriff.

  • gekster

    Read the article again and try to comprehend what the article says and what the poster says.

  • ipolitics

    The detective that gets your case will have 499 other cases on his desk already. Find out his/her name and call them regularly. Ask how it’s going. Offer to help. This is like pushing a boulder up hill – you HAVE TO KEEP PUSHING!

  • Dave_A

    Most city/county governments – even liberal ones – don’t take kindly to folks harassing their prosecutors.

    Hopefully, the locals will see ‘they f’d with one of our guys’ over ‘he’s a right-winger’….

  • PowerToThePeople

    and I am always up to taking a side even if it is not the winning side.

    For the cops to be called on a person and the cops go into the situation thinking there has been a violent occurrence, even in this case where they were told it was an accident, the cops will usually go in hot. If I were sitting at the table eating and my door got kicked in, my first instinct would be to pull my gun as would it be for my wife also. So now we have armed cops who are nervous and who have their weapons trained in front of them come across the wife and me who have our weapons out and pointed in the direction of the area the cops came in, the resulting mess could be deadly. The idea that somehow we should know the people kicking in the door are cops is ludicrous and to even believe most would hear the cops yell “POLICE” is even more ludicrous. We would be under the impression we were being attacked and would act accordingly. The cops would go in believing there may be a felony.assault and a weapon, so they are going to shoot as soon as they see us with guns pointed in their general direction.

    These calls will result in someone being killed if nothing is done to stop them. It may be the home owner killed or even a cop. It is quite dangerous and this game these fools are playing is not OK. Erick is lucky he was smart enough to feel the need to alert the police in his area about these type of calls and that they listened. Anyone else may have been in a gun battle.

  • Dave_A

    Holder doesn’t control county or state authorities, like he does the FBI….

  • After Seven

    Civil RICO.

  • ohiohistorian

    I believe that in 30 days from now, the situation with Kimberlein will be the same. No follow up on his adversaries, no arrests, nothing except more harassment and maybe someone shot in another SWATing. It is not the line cops that are at fault; administration assigns the priority of cases, and this one will be far too low because of the prosecutor. Besides, the argument will be that he brought it on himself, just like there is no blame for rape, property damage, or even murder in the OWS camps.

  • sta46

    the targets of these actions were not both conservative and white.

  • http://MichaelHarrington.org Michael Harrington

    Since the cellular towers use location identification where the call came from (physical location) can be determined, also if the person doing the spoofing is stupid or clumsy the tower can detect # 1 signing off, Spoof # signing on, then off… and # 1 returning.

    This can help create a case for civil prosecution at the least.

    Catch one of his group in the act, put them into a trial, and watch how fast support drops from them as a result.

  • http://MichaelHarrington.org Michael Harrington

    I forgot Anon likes the internet spoofing.

    This is actually a lot more detectable as it is routed through several servers typically before being made a call, and the traffic is logged.

  • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine

    Trespass is a crime.

  • PowerToThePeople

    no one actually came to his property. They simply spoofed his number, most likely using one the companies that offer that service, and then dialed 9-11 with the spoofed number.

    That alone is misuse of 9-11 service but in most states that is a low level misdemeanor which is not a harsh enough charge. States need to quickly write up a law dealing with this nonsense so people can be prosecuted for this BS and dealt with so harshly that these idiots think twice about doing it in the future.

  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    …or at least keep people from using the Caller ID function. No, I’m not going to go into any of them; no sense in giving lurkers ideas.

  • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine

    I certainly wouldn’t publicize such things in any event.

  • 1stRichard

    This SWATting thing is not new, one of the old low tech ways this is done is plugging in to your outdoor phone jack or box on your house. You can avert with a motion light, a detector that alerts you of a power loss on your phone line or other such deterrents. There are also many high tech solutions as well but it would be inappropriate to cover all of these here, don?t want anyone attempting this not knowing what they are doing.

    I do find this amusing that so many do not know how to survive in a Leftist State as I have done for decades. Maybe I should write some sort of survival guide on how we live up here.

  • digitalyoyo

    I am not a lawyer but I would imagine that’s why people use proxies in China, etc.

  • WarEagle01

    give his friends the straight dope on what life is really like in a federal pen. Or why he now sings soprano for his a cappella group.

  • thomasmitchel

    There is a certain segment ofsociety that has no respect for the time, resources of other people and institutions. Now it will add another layer of concern and required confirmation on police departments. Further, this can be a very dangerous “game.” Innocent people have been shot in “mistaken address” raids before. I certainly hope these departments will investigate and make an example of the perpetrators.

    On the brighter side, you would not be a target for this type of malevolence if you were not doing something right:)

  • cactusjack

    the Left, big time, and up on their radar. In this respect, you are now walking in the same successful steps of Glenn Beck. He found it necessary to take steps, some known to the public, some not known to the public.

  • cactusjack

    the Left, big time, and up on their radar. In this respect, you are now walking in the same successful steps of Glenn Beck. He found it necessary to take steps, some known to the public, some not known to the public.

  • johnt

    not as a stand alone incident, but increasingly what is becoming common. There is a blackout in the news however, they seem more interested in Mrs. Romney’s love of horses, note NY Times, as always on top of things.
    Erick, do what it takes to protect yourself and family. We are entering a dark period of savagery.

  • Dave_A

    Is by faking the caller-ID signature for the call…

    This ‘ability’ was originally most common in the telemarketing & bill-collection industry, but various hacker groups (let’s just say Anon & such have plenty in common ideologically with OWS /Black-bloc) picked it up & began using it for this purpose – first just because they thought it was ‘fun’, then to screw with people who criticized their organizations, and now to target political bloggers they don’t like…

  • earlgrey

    are making progress–culturally), we get beaten back by an even larger force.

    These tactics jeopradize EVERYONE in the community. Tying up police officers on a hoax can leave those resources unavailable for people that actually need them. It is a public safety issue as well as a malicious attempt to terrorize the victims.

    WHat frustrates me the most (I am selfish enough to say) is that no one in the media cares. No one outside conservative blogosphere seems to care.

  • Dave_A

    The number of people who have open wifi, plus the number of business establishments that provide it with a strong enough signal to use from a parking-lot, makes investigating those sorts of things rather difficult… Or the person who’s still using WEP and thinks they’re secure (WEP encryption flat out does not work. On an active network, it can usually be cracked in less than an hour).

    Eg, they’ll trace an internet spoof to McD’s parking lot, or to some guy who’s router is set to factory defaults & broadcasts a signal strong enough to be picked up from the road…

    PSA to everyone here AND your families, friends, etc – SECURE YOUR WI-FI ROUTERS, WITH WPA OR WPA2.

  • littlehouse18

    nt

  • rosegrower

    I’m sure you can answer that question yourself. The media???? Really????? I’ll expect Baghdad Bob to report this on Al Jezeerah before I’d ever expect one of the news readers on ABC, NBC, CBS or even the as-of-late castrated FOX to report this or mention Kimberlin and his associations with the Obama administration. We have no journalists any more, merely readers and propagandists for the left.

  • rosegrower

    Considering what a sociopath Kimberlin is, I suspect that was his intent. It would be “homicide by cop” based on the false report. Despite this “prank” being a “low-level misdemeanor” I would still like to see an arrest made. Having even a misdemeanor charge against a known felon can’t be good.

  • rosegrower

    Back in the dinosaur days, the FCC had some jurisdiction over telephone communications. Every telephone book had “rules” for telephone usage posted, and using the telephone to harass or stalk someone was clearly a violation of FCC policy. I can’t believe that adopting a false telephonic identity and calling 911 with a false report isn’t something that’s covered by the Fed’s rules, unless those rules haven’t been updated since Alexander Graham Bell walked the earth.

  • evilbloggerlady