Winnetka SWAT Team Responds to Butt-Dialing

By Chuck Sudo in News on Jan 5, 2011 6:40PM

Here's a story that seems lifted from a sitcom. A woman reacted to an accidental phone call from her husband and called Winnetka police, believing that he was being held hostage at the school district offices where he worked. Let's recap: Winnetka sent a SWAT team to a man's place of employment because the man's wife overreacted to a butt-dialing.

School District 36 interim co-superintendent Mark Friedman told the Tribune, "He was listening to music and he had, I don't know, hip-hop… or music like that, where there were lyrics that were gangster-like. So there were lyrics on the radio as he was driving home, and she listened to it and became concerned."

The woman became so concerned she called police and a SWAT team circled the school around 5 p.m. Monday night. searching for a gunman that was never there. The SWAT team gave the all clear signal at 8 p.m., after the man was found safe at home by police.

There's a lot more going on here than just the butt-dialing, not the least of which was the woman's rush to judgment because of a few hip-hop lyrics. And why didn't either one of them think to call the same police to let them know it was a misunderstanding? You'd think after he was made it home that the woman would have thought to herself, "Oh, shit!" and offered a mea culpa.