A 13-year-old has been charged in connection with numerous swatting incidents on Wednesday evening in Orillia.
Shortly before 5:30 p.m., provincial police said they received a call from Orillia Fire to attend the area of Front Street north for a report of a structure fire. Fire crews had patrolled the area and nothing was located, so they reached out to police to assist with locating the caller.
"At this time, officers were unable to pursue any investigate avenues as the call was placed with an unregistered phone number," according to a news release from Ontario Provincial Police (OPP).
About an hour later, police received a call about a 13-year-old girl who had been shot and was in the middle of Elgin Street bleeding. About 10 officers and other first responders were dispatched to the call, but an extended search found no female victim.
"Police then received 16 more radio calls from the same voice with similar call details. All the calls received were high priority in nature and utilized a large quantity of resources," the news release stated.
A half an hour later, police saw a young person on the second floor of a residence in the reported area talking on a cell phone. Police asked the call taker to listen for a siren, which was then activated by officers and heard by an OPP call talker.
Police said as a result they located a youth and seized a cell phone, and later confirmed that all the calls made allegedly came from that device.
The youth ha been charged with theft under $5,000, public mischief, and possession of property obtained by crime.
The child was turned over to his parents with a future court date.
