The Lane County Sheriff’s Office is urging parents to speak with their children about the seriousness of using emergency services after local law enforcement resources were tied up responding to a prank call early Wednesday.
According to the Sheriff’s Office, multiple units were sent to the Cheshire area at around 7:30 a.m. after receiving several “incomplete 911 calls from a child stating that someone had been shot and that a male was assaulting a female.”
During the phone calls, the child did not provide an address for the emergency and hung up the phone. First responders and police dispatchers then proceeded to work quickly to try and find the emergency location.
The Sheriff’s Office reported that deputies, Oregon State Police Troopers, and Eugene Police K9 units arrived in the general area and began checking door-to-door. Detectives with the Sheriff’s Office started contacting local schools to try to identify the child involved, while a crisis negotiator continued to try to make contact with the 911 caller who was not answering their phone.