Police from multiple departments rushed to respond to a call of an active shooter at a manufacturing plant, but it turned out to be a thoughtless April Fools’ prank and led to the arrest of the prankster.
The Clark County Sheriff’s Office in Ohio say a female employee of the Navistar plant in Springfield called her sister to report that a former employee had returned with a gun.
“Basically she had called her sister and said something to the effect of a guy was fired yesterday and has come back in with a gun. We are all hiding in a locked office and asked her to call the police,” said Clark County Sheriff’s Office Maj. Chris Clark on Thursday.
The sister called 911 and reported the alarming claim. Police immediately responded and arrived within 2 minutes at the plant.
Clark said that deputies performed a sweep of the plant and found no threat.
They later were able to deduce that the call was made as a prank.
“Everyone was completely fine,” Clark said.
Pamela Sisco, 57, of New Carlisle was arrested for allegedly making the prank call. She will be charged with inducing panic and disrupting public service.
“There was a lot of resources that we used today and put in place today all over a stupid April Fools’ joke,” said Clark.
Navistar representatives told the Springfield News-Sun that the employee had been suspended and that they were cooperating with the investigation.
A similar incident unfolded in Wichita, Kansas, when a 58-year-old woman called her daughter to tell her she had been shot. Police rushed to the home but were unable to find a victim of a gunshot.
They later discovered that the call had been an April Fools prank. The mom was arrested and charged with unlawful request for emergency service assistance.
Here’s a local news report about the incident:
April Fools’ tweet lands Clark County woman in jail
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