SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. \u2013 Seminole County deputies responded to two separate swatting incidents Sunday \u2014 one targeting the Central Florida Zoo and another targeting a private residence \u2014 in what experts say is part of a growing and increasingly dangerous national trend.<\/p>\n
Both calls were made on Sunday within roughly an hour of each other, and both were determined to be hoaxes. No injuries were reported, and no arrests have been made. A spokesperson for the sheriff\u2019s office also said that the two calls appear to be unrelated.<\/p>\n
Zoo evacuated after bomb threat call<\/p>\n
The Central Florida Zoo in Sanford was the second target. Deputies with the Seminole County Sheriff\u2019s Office responded to the zoo at 3755 W. Seminole Blvd. around 3:20 p.m. after staff received a call from an unidentified male claiming pipe bombs had been planted inside the facility. <\/p>\n
Zoo staff kept the caller on the line while alerting security to call 911. Deputies arrived within minutes and conducted a full sweep of the property alongside staff members. Nothing suspicious was found.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe person that got the call kept them on the phone as long as they could, and in the meantime got security up to call 911,\u201d said Richard Glover, CEO of the Central Florida Zoo. \u201cAnd the sheriff\u2019s office came out. They decided everything was actually completely safe. There\u2019s no real threat. They walked the property, checked everything, and they cleared it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Residential call came first<\/p>\n
Earlier that same afternoon, at approximately 2:34 p.m., deputies responded to a bomb threat called in to a private residence in the Terra Bella neighborhood of Sanford. The SCSO aviation unit was already in the area and conducted an aerial patrol, finding nothing suspicious. Deputies on the ground also cleared the scene. The case was reported as a separate swatting\/bomb threat incident.<\/p>\n
The incident report noted the residential call was filed for \u201cinformational purposes only\u201d and specifically acknowledged \u201creports of another swatting\/bomb threat in the county earlier in the day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Part of a broader national pattern<\/p>\n
Glover said the zoo incident fits a growing pattern of threats made against zoos across the country in recent months \u2014 and that the zoo had been actively preparing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had actually been updating our policy and making sure all of our staff were up to date on protocols because of that,\u201d Glover said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt seems like there\u2019s a concerted effort by somebody to do this, but nobody\u2019s been caught so far,\u201d Glover said.<\/p>\n
Experts say that\u2019s not surprising. Stephen Holmes, Ph.D., a criminal justice professor at the University of Central Florida who previously worked at the National Institute of Justice, said swatting incidents \u2014 particularly those targeting similar types of organizations \u2014 are increasingly common and often coordinated.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re going to see a lot of copycat crimes that go on,\u201d Holmes said. \u201cFor the ideological swatters, the disruption swatters, they\u2019re going to do this and they\u2019re going to do this more and more and more, and they\u2019re going to include more and more different organizations where they\u2019re doing this to.\u201d<\/p>\n
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security identifies swatting and hoax threats as a national concern, noting they are \u201ca daily occurrence, often come in clusters across the U.S., and are typically made to harass, intimidate, and\/or retaliate against their intended target.\u201d In January 2024, DHS, the FBI and the National Counterterrorism Center tracked more than 100 separate threats to over 1,000 institutions across 42 states and Washington, D.C., in just one month.<\/p>\n
Who is behind swatting calls?<\/p>\n
Holmes said there is no single profile for who makes swatting calls. He identifies four broad types of actors: thrill seekers, those motivated by revenge, ideologically driven individuals or groups, and opportunists.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have people doing it for ideological reasons. And if they\u2019re doing it for ideological reasons, typically they\u2019re very well-funded and they know how to hide their tracks,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In the case of zoos, Holmes said ideological motivations could include opposition to keeping animals in captivity.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ideological reasons are not just political reasons. Sometimes the ideological reasons may be people that are against the way zoos or circuses treat animals. So therefore, they might be calling out to zoos across the country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Holmes said organized groups route their calls through servers around the world, making them nearly impossible to trace at the local level.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou look at a ping from where they\u2019re being sent, and they\u2019re being pinged all over Europe and all over Indonesia before they come back here,\u201d he said. \u201cMost law enforcement, especially at the local level, don\u2019t have the resources to trace that.\u201d<\/p>\n
A serious crime \u2014 not a prank<\/p>\n
Holmes was direct about the severity of swatting, pushing back strongly on any notion that hoax calls are harmless.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople become afraid to go out in public. People become afraid to go out to zoos. They become afraid to go out to the mall. They become afraid to go out to universities,\u201d he said. \u201cThese are no longer pranks. We should never use that word again. The people that are engaging in swatting are serious, violent criminals that are doing psychological damage and inciting violence.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the psychological impact extends beyond those directly involved in an evacuation.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to understand the psychological impact on the victims, too, whether you\u2019re a real victim or whether you\u2019re a victim because you hear about it,\u201d Holmes said.<\/p>\n
Holmes added that law enforcement has no choice but to treat every call as real \u2014 particularly when vulnerable populations are at risk.<\/p>\n
\u201cA zoo is for mothers and young children. Any call that swats a zoo or says there\u2019s a bomb at a zoo has to be taken seriously,\u201d he said. \u201cSo almost all of them, especially with vulnerable populations, have to be treated as credible, which means there has to be a massive call out of resources to deal with that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Real consequences, even without a real threat<\/p>\n
Glover said the incident created ripple effects that extended well beyond Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n
The zoo operates summer camps, and staff had to notify parents so families could decide whether to send their children back in the days following. Glover said attendance fears can linger long after an incident is resolved.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere can be repercussions not only of the day, but in the days after if people are afraid to come because of it,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, it\u2019s very frustrating as a business to have something like this happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
The evacuation also disrupted care routines for the zoo\u2019s animals. Because keepers were stationed outside while waiting for the property to be cleared, some animals received their evening meals later than usual.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of the animals get a second meal later in the day,\u201d Glover said. \u201cThey all had to wait till later than usual yesterday to get that meal, because their keepers were all out here waiting for the park to be cleared.\u201d<\/p>\n
Glover said the experience is unsettling \u2014 even when the outcome is safe.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s scary as a manager to have something like this happen because you get the call, you have this threat, you don\u2019t know whether it\u2019s real or not, but you know that there are people on your premises that could be in danger. And that\u2019s a horrible feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n
What needs to change<\/p>\n
Holmes said stopping swatting will require a federal response, stronger penalties and a cultural shift in how these acts are perceived and prosecuted.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be honest with you, if the people that are doing it are good, they can\u2019t [be stopped],\u201d Holmes said of local law enforcement. \u201cThis has to be a federal response.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said penalties need to be severe enough to deter rational actors.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe penalties have to be not just prison time, but serious prison time. This is one of the most serious things that we face today,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have to make an example of those who engage in this type of problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
Holmes also pointed to a data gap that makes the problem harder to quantify and study. Because swatting has no dedicated category in the FBI\u2019s Uniform Crime Reports, incidents are scattered across multiple reporting categories \u2014 making it difficult to measure the true scale of the problem.<\/p>\n
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