Durango police responded to threats of violence against motel guests Saturday night, but after shutting down travel on Main Avenue and conducting an armed search of the business, officers realized they had been duped by a prank call.
Just before 9 p.m. Saturday, the Durango Police Department received a call from an unknown caller who claimed to have multiple hostages at the Siesta Motel in the 3400 block of Main Avenue.
The caller claimed to have an AR-15 rifle and an accomplice who had planted remote-triggered pipe bombs around the hotel and surrounding area.
“During the call, the person made multiple threats toward that business, community members, hotel guests and law enforcement,” spokeswoman Amanda Garrison said.
Numerous patrol officers then rushed to the hotel. Garrison said they secured the area and began going door-to-door in the motel to make sure all the guests and staff members were safe and to search for the suspect.
Witnesses reported that Main Avenue near the business was shut down during the operation and that traffic had to reroute around the area.
During the investigation, officers learned the business’ front security camera was livestreaming online, Garrison said. They believed the caller may have been using the livestream to monitor police officers’ locations in real time, increasing the danger and making the emergency response more difficult.
But, after a thorough 1½-hour search of the premises, no suspects were identified, nor anything to suggest there was any threat at all. That evidence – or lack thereof – made officers conclude the threat was a farce, Garrison said.
“Officers treated the call as a high-risk incident due to the nature of the reported threats,” Garrison said in an email to The Durango Herald. “The incident was later determined to be a swatting call. No threat was found, and no criminal suspect was identified at the scene.”
The FBI defines a swatting call as “making a hoax call to 9-1-1 to draw a response from law enforcement, usually a SWAT team.” They are illegal, wasteful and highly dangerous, Garrison said.
“Swatting calls pose a serious danger to the community,” Garrison said. “They place innocent people – (in this case) hotel guests and staff – in the middle of a high-risk police response. They also pull officers and emergency resources away from real calls for service and force first responders to make rapid decisions based on false information.”
Garrison said whoever made the call likely singled out the Siesta Motel because its security footage was livestreamed online.
“(These callers) do seek out livestreams so they can actually view what’s happening,” Garrison said. “That gives them entertainment value. They get kicks out of watching.”
sedmondson@durangoherald.com
