Police officers and residents are calling Monday night's "Swatting" incident in St. Francis a waste of taxpayer money.
Someone called the police department and claimed they had shot a family member and were holding others hostage inside a home on the 4400 block of South Delaware Street.
According to Captain Tim Blunt of the St. Francis Police Department all of the officers on duty in St. Francis responded as well as officers from neighboring areas.
Blunt says the call came into 9-1-1 as "blocked" or "private."
"People now days like to think that they are anonymous and they think they can do things under the guise of a computer online and there are ways that we can track that," said Blunt.
Detectives are currently following up on leads. Blunt couldn't give an exact figure but says the department hopes to recoup the loss from whoever is responsible.
Blunt said, "We had a lot of officers out there, wasted a lot of taxpayer money and a lot of time."
Neighbors in the area agree.
Barbara Phenis has lived in the area for three years.
"Waste of taxpayers money again... the police can be doing other things, things that are really happening," she said.
