Crime & Safety

Police Unable to Locate Phone from Lincoln-Way Gun Threat

Someone threatened to bring guns to Lincoln-Way Central and open fire Tuesday, but the phone used was untraceable. Police and school administrators say the school was safe and the threat was a "crank call."

Police were unable to track down the phone used in a 911 call Tuesday that threatened to bring guns to and open fire.

"In this case, we've come up against a brick wall and we're not going to be able to track that number," said Ken Kaupas, a spokesman for the Will County Sheriff's Department.

Sheriff's police responded to the high school shortly after 11 a.m. Tuesday and searched the school. No weapons or suspicious people were found, and within an hour people were allowed in and out of the building again.

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The Will County 911 dispatch received a call from an anonymous male Tuesday morning, and the phone was untraceable.

"Everyone is safe, there's nothing wrong," Lincoln-Way spokeswoman Stacy Holland said. "Police believe it was just a crank call."

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On Patch's Facebook page and in the comments section online, parents and community members debated how families should have been notified by the district.

Lincoln-Way posted a news release to its website around 1 p.m. Tuesday, but some parents said they should have been notified via phone or email. The district has a system called Direct Connect that calls parents and delivers a message.

Holland said the system was not used because officials wanted to make sure parents didn't just see the word "lockdown" and miss the fact that police didn't find the threat to be credible.

Students inside the building weren't entirely sure what was happening, either, as rumors started to spread. Sammi Holland said she was in reading class when an officer interrupted and said, "By the way, we're on lockdown."

"My friend Kelsey and I were kind of freaking out because, I mean, it's a lockdown and no one would tell us why," she said.

Police maintained a presence outside of all four Lincoln-Way high schools for the rest of the day, but one parent said she and another male with a backpack were allowed to walk in the school without any questions asked.

"I told them I thought they were failing our students," parent Janis Bautz said. She went to pick up her freshman daughter after hearing what was going on. "I can't believe the school didn't communicate this with us directly."

Other people in the community expressed great thanks to the quick work by the police, and they didn't think it was necessary for a phone call to parents.

"They posted a press release as soon as they could—after the police cleared the issue and advised everything was safe," commenter Donny said. "My two kids at Central are safe, I thank (Lincoln-Way) and Will County Police for doing their job. There's nothing else to communicate."


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