Chicago-area police may be feeling a bit silly after storming a middle school Monday in what they thought was a hostage situation. The real culprit: A school employee's cell phone.
On his drive home from school, an Illinois man accidentally "butt dialed" his wife on his touch screen phone, according to ABC News. His wife mistook the muffled noises she heard as a school shooting situation, and dialed 911.
The man's boss, Mark Friedman, told ABC:
"He had the radio up and was listening to lyrics of hip-hop music or something like that, and she heard bits and pieces of it and misinterpreted the lyrics to think that he was in trouble."
The kicker came when police responded accordingly, sending 30 men in bulletproof vests with automatic weapons to the Winnetka school. The middle school's 500 students had already left for the day, but the two-hour drill nevertheless shook up the surrounding neighborhood.
The NY Daily News reported:
Crowds of worried residents gathered near the school to watch as SWAT members established a security perimeter, while others clad in bulletproof vests, helmets and face shields swept classrooms inside the building.
Read more about the event at ABC News.