CANTON, Mass. (MyFoxBoston.com) -- Guns were drawn at a home in Canton that turned out to be a hoax Tuesday night.
The Hubbard Street homeowner was shocked when police showed up at his door and told him to put his hands up. Marty Herman says he got a call from police moments before and was then told his house was surrounded.
"I had to come to the door with my hands up like this and when I walked out the door they had rifles aiming at me," he said.
All that due to a hoax called swatting. Someone called Canton Police, "stating that a party had shot their father and was holding their mother hostage," according to Chief Ken Berkowitz.
And the caller threatened to shoot her, too, but it wasn't long until police figured out that the caller was lying and were able to "ascertain it was a in fact a hoax call."
And that happened in three local towns Tuesday night, inlcuding Canton, Taunton and Rochester, N.H. In Taunton, it was a fake armed invasion and in Rochester a fake hostage situation.
Police say swatting ties up resources and puts everyone in danger.
"It's a difficult call, Berkowitz said. "You have to treat it like it's real until you figure out that it's not."
Cox Media Group