Police track down source of errant, threatening text message to find it was all a mistake
Technological convenience and a safety-first mindset came together to create a strange scene at a Georgia high school on Wednesday, when a misspelled word led to a full lockdown and police investigation. West Hall high school was on full alert for approximately two hours Wednesday morning after an unidentified person tipped police that someone at the school had a gun.
An anonymous individual in Oakwood, Georgia, sent a text message to an incorrect number that read "Gunman be at West Hall today." The recipient — who did not recognize the sender's number or reply to the message — immediately contacted local authorities. After taking preventative measures that included locking down the school and setting up a police perimeter, the source of the number was tracked down.
It turns out the original text message was supposed to have read "Gunna [oft-used abbreviation for 'going to'] be at West Hall today," but the sender's new cell phone auto-corrected the misspelled word to "gunman." The sender will not face any criminal charges for the text message, as it was clearly a mistake.
After breathing a sigh of relief, law enforcement informed the school and community of what had happened and assured everyone that there was indeed no gunman in their midst. Police say the tipster did the right thing in contact them, and noted that you can never be too careful when it comes to situations such as this.
A Hall County Schools spokesman said the strange circumstances were further compounded by the recent shooting at Chardon High School in Ohio which is still fresh in everyone's mind, and went on to commend everyone involved in their prompt response to a very serious situation.
This article originally appeared on Tecca
