Police woke members of a Rugby household up in the early hours of Dec. 1 after dispatchers received a prank call from someone claiming to need help at their address.

According to a statement released by Rugby Police Chief John Rose, similar calls went to dispatchers in Benson County and Devils Lake at approximately the same time. All three calls were made to the law enforcement agencies’ non-emergency phone numbers.

Rose said the type of prank on law enforcement is called “swatting.”

“The number the calls came from appears to be a ‘text over’ number from Los Angeles, Calif,” Rose said. “It also appears to be a ‘robo dialer’ calling police departments across the nation making these swatting calls.”

“‘Swatting’ is the action or practice of making a prank call to emergency services in an attempt to bring about the dispatch of a large number of armed police officers to a particular address,” Rose said.