Hoax 911 call leads to large law enforcement response in Toddville

TODDVILLE - Deputies from the Linn County Sheriff's Office responded Tuesday evening for a possible murder. However, the 911 call that led to the response turned out to be a hoax.

Col. John Stuelke with the Linn County Sheriff's Office said dispatchers received a landline call at around 7:10 p.m. for a report of a shooting and hostage situation on Toddville Road near the intersection with Feather Ridge Road.

Several cars from the sheriff's office, as well as ambulances and fire trucks, responded to the scene. Stuelke said the response was appropriate given the reported severity of the call.

'When something like this occurs, we send out a large contingency of officers, not only from our agency but from other agencies,” Col. Stuelke said. 'That's why we sent as many units as we did, because we have to make sure that we have enough people to cover the residence before we attempt to make entry.”

Upon investigation, deputies discovered the report made to 911 was unfounded, which can be dangerous for both law enforcement and those inside the location of the reported disturbance.

'It puts our officers at risk when they're running emergency to these calls and then we find out they're not true,” Col. Stuelke said. 'The people [inside the home] don't know what's going on, and all of the sudden you have a large contingency of law enforcement personnel showing up around their house.”

Detectives will work to trace the source of the false report Wednesday, though cellphones and phones using Internet protocols can be difficult to track down to a single source, Stuelke said.

He said state law has penalties for those who file false reports with law enforcement. Iowa Code section 718 says doing so is punishable by a simple or serious misdemeanor, depending on the circumstances.