By Khalida Sarwari
The Salinas Police Department is working with the FBI to identify and find a person who made a false report to law enforcement on Wednesday.
At about 5:40 p.m., a phone relay service provider called 911 and reported receiving Internet-based messages from a person claiming that his mother had just been shot inside a home in the 1000 block of Eagle Drive, according to police.
The individual said he could see three armed men in the house and that he was hiding under a bed and needed help. The relay service continued exchanging messages with the person while officers and paramedics responded to the house and set up a perimeter.
Dispatchers found another phone number for the home and when they called the number, a child answered, according to police.
The child answered the door when police arrived and officers found that none of the home’s occupants were involved in the hoax, according to police.
Police determined there was no emergency and that the person who reported the incident might have been using an application similar to the Google street view to give the relay service information about the house.
