A Baytown couple says their home has now been hit twice by fake crime reports that sent armed police officers to their door, the latest a false claim that a man had shot his wife and barricaded himself inside with his young son. Ryan and Amelia Mengo say three officers showed up at their house at night on October 15 and attempted to kick in their door before Ryan crawled outside on his stomach, uncertain whether he would be shot.
According to fox26houston.com, Baytown Police say they received a call on October 15 describing a man armed with a shotgun who had shot his wife in the stomach and barricaded himself in the bathroom with his nine-year-old son. None of it was true — it was a swatting call, according to the station's report. Amelia, inside the house, said she thought someone was breaking in and ran upstairs to get a gun, while Ryan ran downstairs to confront the apparent intruders before realizing it was police outside.
Ryan said he called out to the officers and was told to come outside with his hands up, and he was then ordered to crawl out on his stomach. He said he got on the ground because he feared that if he moved, police would shoot him. Baytown police said he was detained under the impression that he was the one who had called in the false report, and that his handcuffs were removed once officers determined no one inside needed help, per the same station's account.
A Second Hoax in the Same Year
This was not the first time the Mengos' address had drawn a fake emergency response. Last July, Baytown police responded to a text message claiming a hostage situation inside the couple's home — a report Ryan said he told officers stemmed from an online pizza delivery order whose message field claimed the sender was being held hostage. He reminded officers on October 15 that the home had already been targeted by a swatting incident months earlier.
Ryan said he understood that police had to take the report seriously to some extent, but he wished for more discretion and for officers to call first rather than approach with force. He said he had previously been told by a police dispatcher that the family's address would be flagged after the first swatting call — a assurance that, per fox26houston.com, Baytown police did not directly address when asked about it. Ryan said he had also been told police would call the family first for a welfare check or to notify them before responding to any future incident at the address.
Amelia said police reacted too quickly without taking more precaution, and that an expedited response like the one on October 15 could still have ended with someone being critically injured. Ryan said the response terrorized both his wife and their home. Baytown police, for their part, defended their approach, saying officers must make decisions based on the information available to them in the moment, particularly when a report describes serious injury or immediate danger, according to the same fox26houston.com account.
Police Say the False Reports Carry Real Costs
Baytown police confirmed the Mengos were victims of a false report on October 15 and said officials are now investigating the incident and working to identify who made the swatting call, the same source reported. Police said such incidents can place innocent residents, children and responding officers at risk, and can divert emergency resources away from legitimate calls for help.
Swatting has become a recognized national problem. Perpetrators make false reports of violent crime — a shooting, a hostage situation — specifically to trigger a major police response, according to wpr.org. The FBI estimates more than 1,000 swatting events occur nationally in a typical year, and a University at Albany lecturer cited figures showing such incidents have risen roughly 23% over the past two years, per spectrumlocalnews.com. A single swatting response can cost a police agency around $17,000, and officials say everyone at the scene is put at risk when officers arrive expecting a violent crime in progress.
The toll of repeated swatting can be severe. In Milwaukee, Patrick Tomlinson and Niki Robinson were swatted 55 times over a two-and-a-half-year period, and the pair were later awarded a $575,000 settlement after suing the city over how police handled the responses, according to wpr.org's reporting. Not every emergency call involving the Mengos' circumstances has turned out to be a hoax elsewhere — in one case detailed by the Washington Post, a Florida woman used the notes field of an online Pizza Hut order to signal she was being held hostage by a knife-wielding boyfriend, and police said the order helped her and three children escape the situation.
Investigation Continues
Baytown police have warned that swatting is a crime that ties up emergency resources and puts lives in danger, and the department is continuing to investigate who is behind the calls targeting the Mengo home. The identity of the person responsible for either the July or October reports has not been established.
