DENVER (KDVR) Someone may have been using a fake wildlife attack to harass a Colorado resident, according to the Summit County Sheriff’s Office.

Summit County deputies were faced with a unique case in the penultimate week of 2024 when the agency received a call from a woman who reported a bear in her residence, but authorities ultimately found no trace of the large animal.

According to the Summit County Sheriff’s Office’s “Justice Files” for Dec. 23 through Dec. 29, where the agency publishes its notable patrol calls, property management for a condominium in the unincorporated portion of Silverthorne were called by a resident who said she and her son had barricaded themselves in a room after a bear broke into their rental.

The woman told property management that the bear injured her son, and they were able to escape and were on their way to the emergency room. The agency said that’s when the woman disconnected the call.

Deputies, alongside animal control officers and the Division of Wildlife, responded to the unit and found “no signs of a bear” in the area.

The deputies then called her back and said when they spoke with the woman, she was calm. She told deputies that she was not going to an emergency room, and did not know anything about a bear or the call to 911. She told the deputies that she had been receiving calls from law enforcement all afternoon that referenced “random calls to 911 centers.”

The Summit County Sheriff’s Office said at this time, the incident is being considered a “swatting” case.

Swatting, as the agency explained, is the act of making false calls reporting serious crimes or incidents to emergency services, sometimes in an attempt to injure someone not connected to law enforcement, but often to fool law enforcement or emergency management resources in an attempt to send large-scale responses. The act often wastes emergency service resources and can take away from actual emergencies in the region.