Anonymous Caller Inaccurately Told Police Person Carrying Gun at Waukesha Bar
Capt. Dennis Angle said the caller had specific information but police could not verify that information.
An anonymous phone call to the Waukesha Police Department dispatchers that had very specific details, but inaccurate, about a person with a firearm at a downtown bar led to a large police response Sunday afternoon, Capt. Dennis Angle said.
"The information that we got could not be substantiated," Angle said.
The Waukesha Police Department blocked off streets in the downtown area Sunday afternoon. Officers detained and patted down several people but no weapon was located. The owner of Hannon's Fine Food and Cocktails was extremely cooperative with police, Angle said.
No one was injured in the incident and no arrests were made. There are no charges that came from the investigation, Angle said.
Matt
8:12 pm on Sunday, April 10, 2011
I was driving on St Paul around the time it was going on and noticed a ton of police cars blocking off the area, and people walking around, I assumed that there was some sort of festival going on that I didn't know about.
Scott L
10:22 pm on Wednesday, June 29, 2011
"very specific details, but inaccurate.."?
Now for the rest of the story...
The event that was going on inside of Hannon's was a benefit for a gentleman who is going through chemotherapy and cannot afford the cost of medical procedures. He was ultimately summoned outside where authorities, with guns trained on him, made him surrender, lie down on the ground, and handcuffed him before taking him to jail. Further, everyone in the establishment was patted down as they were forced to leave. All of this from an anonymous tip?
Why couldn't authorities have sent in an undercover officer to verify this alleged "anonymous tip"? I guess its kind of scary to know that anyone can call from an unidentified phone and allege anything about anyone and the police are going to respond in full force. A flagrant waste of police resources and taxpayer money for something that turned out to be untrue.
I guess everyone can be fortunate that nobody was hurt.
I respect the fact that police have to do their job, but there must be a better way to weed out the "prank" calls, because that's all this turned out to be!