Virginia Crisis Link Hotline prank triggers police response

Police reported receiving a call from a Virginia Crisis Link Hotline operator who reported an adolescent male caller “stated that he was tired of his parents abusing him and that he was going to take his father’s shotgun and shoot them.” Saturday, Aug. 15 at 3:31 p.m. The hotline was able to trace the cell phone number to Winchester and provide police with the address of its owner.

Three officers responded and searched the home, they found a black air soft gun resembling an MP-5 in the teenager’s room, which they seized and held for safekeeping. They said they asked her whether her son was home, to which she replied that he was at the boat club with her husband.

Police reported they found her son a 13-year-old boy along with another 13-year-old friend and his 11-year-old brother at the boat club. The boys admitted to making the phone call “and all of them were extremely apologetic.

All three Winchester teenager who called the Virginia Crisis Link Hotline were advised on the seriousness of the call and how the prank call was not funny pranks at all. They were just issued with a stern warning, but no charges according to the police report.

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