SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. – Seminole County deputies were called to action on Sunday after two separate swatting incidents disrupted the peace, one at the Central Florida Zoo and another at a private residence. Experts warn that such incidents are part of a concerning nationwide trend that is becoming more prevalent and dangerous.
The two hoax calls occurred within about an hour of each other, yet officials say they were unrelated. Fortunately, no injuries were reported in either case, and authorities have not yet made any arrests, according to a statement from the sheriff’s office.
Bomb Threat Leads to Zoo Evacuation
The second incident occurred at the Central Florida Zoo in Sanford. Around 3:20 p.m., the zoo received a call from an unidentified male who claimed that pipe bombs were hidden inside the facility, prompting a swift response from the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office. The zoo is located at 3755 W. Seminole Blvd.
Zoo staff managed to keep the caller engaged on the phone while security personnel contacted 911. Deputies arrived promptly and, with the assistance of zoo staff, conducted a thorough search of the premises. No suspicious items were found during the sweep.
“The 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,” explained Richard Glover, CEO of the Central Florida Zoo. “And the sheriff’s office came out. They decided everything was actually completely safe. There’s no real threat. They walked the property, checked everything, and they cleared it.”
Residential call came first
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.
The incident report noted the residential call was filed for “informational purposes only” and specifically acknowledged “reports of another swatting/bomb threat in the county earlier in the day.”
Part of a broader national pattern
Glover said the zoo incident fits a growing pattern of threats made against zoos across the country in recent months — and that the zoo had been actively preparing.
“We had actually been updating our policy and making sure all of our staff were up to date on protocols because of that,” Glover said.
“It seems like there’s a concerted effort by somebody to do this, but nobody’s been caught so far,” Glover said.
Experts say that’s 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 — particularly those targeting similar types of organizations — are increasingly common and often coordinated.
“You’re going to see a lot of copycat crimes that go on,” Holmes said. “For the ideological swatters, the disruption swatters, they’re going to do this and they’re going to do this more and more and more, and they’re going to include more and more different organizations where they’re doing this to.”
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security identifies swatting and hoax threats as a national concern, noting they are “a daily occurrence, often come in clusters across the U.S., and are typically made to harass, intimidate, and/or retaliate against their intended target.” 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.
Who is behind swatting calls?
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.
“You have people doing it for ideological reasons. And if they’re doing it for ideological reasons, typically they’re very well-funded and they know how to hide their tracks,” he said.
In the case of zoos, Holmes said ideological motivations could include opposition to keeping animals in captivity.
“The 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,” he said.
Holmes said organized groups route their calls through servers around the world, making them nearly impossible to trace at the local level.
“You look at a ping from where they’re being sent, and they’re being pinged all over Europe and all over Indonesia before they come back here,” he said. “Most law enforcement, especially at the local level, don’t have the resources to trace that.”
A serious crime — not a prank
Holmes was direct about the severity of swatting, pushing back strongly on any notion that hoax calls are harmless.
“People 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,” he said. “These 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.”
He said the psychological impact extends beyond those directly involved in an evacuation.
“You have to understand the psychological impact on the victims, too, whether you’re a real victim or whether you’re a victim because you hear about it,” Holmes said.
Holmes added that law enforcement has no choice but to treat every call as real — particularly when vulnerable populations are at risk.
“A zoo is for mothers and young children. Any call that swats a zoo or says there’s a bomb at a zoo has to be taken seriously,” he said. “So 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.”
Real consequences, even without a real threat
Glover said the incident created ripple effects that extended well beyond Sunday afternoon.
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.
“There can be repercussions not only of the day, but in the days after if people are afraid to come because of it,” he said. “So, it’s very frustrating as a business to have something like this happen.”
The evacuation also disrupted care routines for the zoo’s animals. Because keepers were stationed outside while waiting for the property to be cleared, some animals received their evening meals later than usual.
“A lot of the animals get a second meal later in the day,” Glover said. “They 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.”
Glover said the experience is unsettling — even when the outcome is safe.
“It’s scary as a manager to have something like this happen because you get the call, you have this threat, you don’t know whether it’s real or not, but you know that there are people on your premises that could be in danger. And that’s a horrible feeling.”
What needs to change
Holmes said stopping swatting will require a federal response, stronger penalties and a cultural shift in how these acts are perceived and prosecuted.
“To be honest with you, if the people that are doing it are good, they can’t [be stopped],” Holmes said of local law enforcement. “This has to be a federal response.”
He said penalties need to be severe enough to deter rational actors.
“The penalties have to be not just prison time, but serious prison time. This is one of the most serious things that we face today,” he said. “We have to make an example of those who engage in this type of problem.”
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’s Uniform Crime Reports, incidents are scattered across multiple reporting categories — making it difficult to measure the true scale of the problem.
