String of hoax 911 calls made on homes newly listed for sale

Five homes recently listed for sale have been targeted by "swatting calls" and false reports of crimes, according to officials at the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office.

Hoax 911 callers have targeted high schools with fake reports of active shooters. Swatting has also been a trend for years in the online gaming community, sometimes with deadly results. But targeting homes for sale seems new, and investigators have no idea what motive is behind the incidents.

What is swatting?

Swatting is defined by Ohio law as reporting false information to law enforcement with a reckless disregard for whether that report will cause someone harm. Gov. Mike DeWine signed a bill making the act of felony into law in January.

Besides the inconvenience to the victim, there is a real-world impact to swatting. Last year, hundreds of police and first responders swarmed Princeton High School expending hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of labor.Other, more personal swatting attacks among online gamers have turned deadly. In 2019, a North College Hill man was sentenced to 15 months in prison. The false report ended in police fatally shooting 28-year-old Andrew Finch in Wichita, Kansas.

Medics, deputy sent to Anderson Township home after it was listed for sale

Earlier this month, Jennifer Kasten listed her Anderson Township home for sale. The next day, May 4, she was getting ready for work when two medics showed up at her door. They thought someone at her home on Eight Mile Road was experiencing a medical emergency but weren't sure about the address.

Kasten, who is a doctor, said everyone in the house was safe and sent them on their way. She assumed someone in a neighboring home just needed help.

Not long after there was another knock. She opened the door to find a deputy standing there.

"He looked me up and said, 'Fernando?'," Kasten said

Hamilton County Corporal William Porzel was sent to the house for a report of an assault on a 14-year-old. The caller said the perpetrator had a gun.

Again, Kasten explained she was the only one in the house. Luckily, Porzel was already skeptical that the report was fake and the response didn't include a full SWAT team.

A string of hoaxes in Hamilton County

About a week earlier, Porzel had dealt with a call reporting a teenager had overdosed on codeine on Nottingham Road. When responding to the call, he noticed a "for sale" sign in the yard.

The call was not a direct 911 call, he said. It had been routed through a crisis hotline and the originating number didn't appear to be real.

This was the same way the calls were made reporting Kasten's house. And there were more that followed the same pattern.

In all, there have been five calls at three different houses in Anderson Township and another two calls in eastern Hamilton County. Porzel said they've all been homes for sale, all bad numbers routed through crisis lines. Most of the calls involved supposed teen victims and firearms.

Many of the names used in the calls were similar, Porzel said.

Then there was a third call to Kasten's house.

A report of child sexual abuse

Kasten made it to work after she spoke with Porzel. Then she got another call.

During a showing to a potential buyer, two child protective services workers from Hamilton County Job and Family Services showed up and demanded to see the children living in the home, she said.

Kasten said the caller said they were a juvenile victim of rape by a parent.

Luckily with the help of Porzel, it was all sorted out quickly, but Kasten said a report of a crime against a child on her record, even if there was no conviction, could have seriously damaged her career.

She said she thinks the motivation behind the calls is to just cause chaos, but she did speculate if this was some attempt to get the prices of real estate lower. But that didn't make sense to her. She thinks the perpetrator might be a young person who didn't know many ways to find random addresses.

"We're trying to understand what the end game is," Porzel said.

Fake number generator, voice changing apps make investigation difficult

The investigation is ongoing. Hamilton County crime intelligence analyst Aleigha Lane is working alongside detectives on the case. She said while they're working to track down the number, the ease of generating fake numbers using apps and services on the internet means it might not be possible.

She said voice changers can also be used to further mask the source of the call.

In the meantime, Lane said the communications center has protocols in place to guard against an excessive response to a call and determine if a call is authentic.

The deputies have also been informed that these calls are occurring along with some real estate groups in the area. She also said the public can help.

"Be aware that these types of incidents are occurring," Lane said. "And if the police show up, just talk to them."

Nolan Simmons contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: 'Swatting' investigation into string of hoax calls on 'For Sale' homes