A prank call into the Broward County Sheriff's Office led heavily armed police to surround the Florida home of Parkland shooting survivor and activist David Hogg on Tuesday. The caller claimed hostages were being held at the Hogg residence, local ABC affiliate WPLG reported, prompting the sheriff's office to immediately dispatch law enforcement officers and a helicopter to the scene.
But when police arrived at Hogg's home, they discovered the call was a hoax. Hogg, who graduated Sunday from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 17 students and teachers were killed in February, was not home at the time. He is currently in Washington, D.C., with his mother, to receive the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Hogg told WPLG that the prank is "really a distraction from what we're trying to fix here, which is the massive gun violence epidemic in this country." The 17-year-old is gearing up to embark on a 60-day summer tour across the United States with several of his Parkland peers; on June 15, they will start traveling with the March for Our Lives movement to register young people to vote and promote gun reform.
-
Massacre in the favela: Rio’s police take on the gangsIn the Spotlight The ‘defence operation’ killed 132 suspected gang members, but could spark ‘more hatred and revenge’
-
The John Lewis ad: touching, or just weird?Talking Point This year’s festive offering is full of 1990s nostalgia – but are hedonistic raves really the spirit of Christmas?
-
Codeword: November 15, 2025The daily codeword puzzle from The Week
-
France makes first arrests in Louvre jewels heistSpeed Read Two suspects were arrested in connection with the daytime theft of royal jewels from the museum
-
Trump pardons crypto titan who enriched familySpeed Read Binance founder Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty in 2023 to enabling money laundering while CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange
-
Thieves nab French crown jewels from LouvreSpeed Read A gang of thieves stole 19th century royal jewels from the Paris museum’s Galerie d’Apollon
-
Arsonist who attacked Shapiro gets 25-50 yearsSpeed Read Cody Balmer broke into the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion and tried to burn it down
-
Man charged over LA’s deadly Palisades Firespeed read 29-year-old Jonathan Rinderknecht has been arrested in connection with the fire that killed 12 people
-
4 dead in shooting, arson attack in Michigan churchSpeed Read A gunman drove a pickup truck into a Mormon church where he shot at congregants and then set the building on fire
-
2 kids killed in shooting at Catholic school massSpeed Read 17 others were wounded during a morning mass at the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis
-
Australian woman found guilty of mushroom murdersspeed read Erin Patterson murdered three of her ex-husband's relatives by serving them toxic death cap mushrooms
