The victim of a recent “SWATing” prank has filed a complaint against the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station alleging misconduct from responding deputies, officials said Monday.
On Thursday night, Stevenson Ranch resident Alex Fedorov said he was working in his office at home. His wife and 60-year-old mother were getting ready to go out on a walk the two regularly take, and his 11-year-old son was getting ready for bed.
“We were home, all four of us,” Fedorov said. “We also had our golden retriever and our three puppies there.”
Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the Fedorov family, 9-1-1 dispatchers had received a report of a person with a gun and a hostage at their home on 25000 block of Anderson Lane in Stevenson Ranch.
The call prompted a large number of deputies with the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station to respond due to the possibility of a firearm being involved, according to Sheriff’s officials.
“Whenever we see information come in involving a firearm, we treat it as actual and real,” said Shirley Miller, spokesperson for the station. “When (we) receive a call that says someone shot a family member, or that they have a hostage, the deputies are going to go in fully equipped with the tools and manpower necessary to ensure the safety of everyone.”
But Fedorov’s wife and mother knew nothing about the reported hostage situation as they were heading out for their evening walk, only to be met by the large contingent of responding deputies.
“They were blinded by the lights that they were shining at our house,” Fedorov said. “I walked out myself with my hands raised in the air. When I walked outside, this person on the P.A. yelled at us like we were criminals.”
See Related: Stevenson Ranch Hostage Call Now Being Reported As ‘Swatting’
As Fedorov, his wife and his mother were being detained, deputies also reportedly brought out Fedorov’s son, who Federov said was only wearing underwear at the time.
“They put me on my knees without searching me,” Fedorov said. “They put us on our knees in front of our house, in front of our neighbors, like dogs.”
After deputies investigated the scene, they determined that no hostage situation had taken place at the location, leading them to believe that the report had been a prank, according to Sheriff’s officials.
“It is being investigated as ‘SWATing,’” Miller said the following morning. “‘SWATing’ is when someone does a hoax and will contact the police and report that some horrendous crime happened.”
This reportedly was not the first time the Fedorovs had been the victim of a similar prank. According to Fedorov, they had experienced similar situations twice before.
“Both times they assured us that they’d put a note in the system,” Fedorov said, referring to Sheriff’s officials. “The last few times they were very polite. But not this time.”
According to Fedorov, the deputies who detained him during the incident refused to loosen his handcuffs, which he says were so tight that they caused his hands to turn purple.
“They were just laughing at me,” Fedorov said. “I was pleading with them to loosen the handcuffs, and they just laughed at me.”
When Fedorov and his family were eventually released from their handcuffs, he said he asked the deputies to provide identification.
“One of them was telling everyone else, ‘Don’t waste time on him,’” Fedorov said. “The deputies were dismissing me and refused to identify themselves.”
Fedorov has since filed a complaint with the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station, and says he plans to pursue further legal action.
“I can confirm that a complaint was filed,” Miller said. “It’s going to be investigated and reviewed to ensure that proper protocol was followed.”
As of Monday afternoon, detectives were still investigating the incident.
“As you can tell from this situation, (SWATing) can be very dangerous,” Miller said. “It is something that is a disrespect to the community, and jeopardizes not only the safety of the individuals who live in the home, but also the surrounding neighborhood.”
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time to take the x-box away from the 11 year old, if this is the third time!
Let’s place the blame where blame is due…on the person(s) who called in a false (felony) 9-1-1 call. And this has happened to this family a FEW times?? Please. I’m sorry the Fedorov Family experienced this (again) but the Sheriff’s were only DOING THEIR JOB. They don’t know who’s who when they arrive at the scene so handcuffing those present until they can sort out the details, is a NORMAL process.
Time to consider that maybe there’s a relative with a grudge that they need to deal with. But blaming the Sheriff’s Department, I’m sorry, that is ridiculous.
Your opinion will be taking in consideration when you will live thru what me and my family lived thru and you will experience same treatment as Santra Clarita Sheriff’s treat me and my family.
After 1 time they assured us that this will never happen again.
I will talk to you when your underage son will be drugged out of house in his underwear in a middle of the street in handcuffs.
If you don’t get that I’m not blaming SC Sheriff Department for a reposing to 9-1-1 call but for abusing they power, humiliation to me and my family and braking the law by dismissing me when I was requesting they IDs.
Sheriff’s very rude and unnecessary put us on our knees like so some criminals whiteout even searching us.
My 11 years old son is so stressed and scared that he is still not able to go sleep and when he does he having a nightmares.
Sounds like the smell of money to me. You’re using this to get money from the taxpayer and blaming all kinds of feelings being hurt. If this had been an armed hostage situation, you would have prayed for the lifesaving efforts, tools and techniques of the Deputies who responded in order to save you and your family from being killed or seriously hurt.
Man up Fedorov and start being patient with the Sheriff’s Deputies who put their lives on the line to protect you and your family.
Even if it was a prank before, none of them have any idea if the third time is the real deal and extremely dangerous. They did what they needed to. I suspect from your quotes you were not exactly polite or cooperative and understanding as you might have been. These incident are extremely chaotic and fast moving and frankly they don’t have the time to hold your hand and say pretty please.
You ought to go the station with a written apology, with draw your claim for misconduct to fuel the chances of you getting rich off the taxpayers and bring them about a dozen pizzas, flowers and a big sincere thank you.
Jeez, they risk their life and you think the fact your son was brought out in his underwear is traumatic?? Really? Not much different than swimming trunks and guess what? You all survived and tomorrow is another day.
My guess is you should redirect your attention to your son or other minor children who are probably connected in some fashion to being pranked like this. Nobody believes you just happened to be the innocent unknown victim on this – once – twice – three times??? Know your kids and maybe this expensive and life threatening call for police response might just go away. Root cause Federov. Look in your mirror
And if these “life saving Sheriff’s Deputies” and gunned down an innocent family you’d still be on here making excuses for their dangerous antics.
Fact, the police don’t “put their lives on the line” to save anyone. A Supreme Court ruling Warren v. District of Columbia decided that law enforcement has no obligation to save you.
Law enforcement needs to be held account, especially when these unqualified buffoons are out here pretending to be Seal Team Six looking for their first kill.
That doesn’t even touch on problems like the Sheriff’s Deputies refusing to ID themselves, something California state law requires.
Like as I was reading your uneducated rant I had a shitload to say bc clearly your a dumbass even going as far to state the District of Columbia for a ca incident !! Seal team 6, hahaha omg!but I’ll just say this your I’m sure the first whiny b to call 911 when something happens, I’ll show the to my 2 deputy daughters and hopefully your next 991 call will send them out to help you
Your a moron no cop ever in any area/ zip code co etc should be held responsible for clearing a house when a 911 call has been made as a joke! Can’t fix stupid!
You have every right to file a complaint. I recommend your entire family request a face to face with the station Captain. Maybe he can feel your anger better than the street deputies that care very little about your feelings. Get it off your chest. That’s what he’s there for as a link to the community.
And if the pranking and false police report turns out to be connected to his son (three times makes that really suspect) then the Sheriff can sue Federov for the cost and expense of responding – not once but three times and perhaps they can submit a request for a criminal filing as well.
This is all about a nonsense snowflake trying to get a fast buck on the back of the taxpayers.
Really, and where did your brilliant legal mind come up with that?
The LOL school of Twitter & Facebook?
Explain to the rest of us how holding accountable the out of control gun totting “law” men kicked in the door and threatened to shoot him makes him a “snowflake”.
Here’s an idea, if your clown Sherriff doesn’t want to be sued then maybe he should follow the law.
the police should look into Mr. Fedorov’s business practices it would give them a better idea who they’re dealing with !!!
Im so sorry that happened to you and your family. Today I called the Sherrifs to my house because I needed thier help to get my daughters boyfriend out of my house, they came in, talked to me for second, they wanted to talk to my daughter, one officer talked to her and the other officer talked to my daughters boyfriend, they told me that I have to evict him if I wanted him out, the officer that talked to my daughters boyfriend called me a drug attict and said Im so high on pills right now and I was not ask if I was sick he just assumed that I was a drug attict Im very sick I have kidney disease and diabeties and also live with chronic back and leg pain but yet I was put down, I made a complaint with the sherrifs dept, lets see what they do, most likely nothing, Im a disabled senior and thats how I get treated no I dont think so. Im taking this all the way and Im glad you are also, scv shrrifs dept is very rude!
Ok 1st off the SC Sheriffs can not control grudges ppl have or pranks! And 2 Nd they did not treat you any different than they have anyone else. Someone tried to push their way into my house, when they did I grabbed the first person, son in law got 2 long story short we beat their asses. They called 911 cops came with lasers and guns drawn put myself my 2 sons 3 daughters and dog on the ground in cuffs, went to clear the house and put a gun on my son coming out of shower! But it is not their fault that the criminals called in a report that I had stabbed the biggest man there in the neck, when I merely grabbed him by his hoodie and face planted his ass to the stucco, so as mad as I was I didn’t sue, you’ll never find anyone local to sue anyway, meanwhile your just building a bad relationship with Sheriffs and not giving you their name is not breaking the law! Lol where are you from?!? Btw my daughter was 9 months pregnant when they cuffed her on her knees in front of all of our neighbors! I sued the co that employed the gang bangers that thought they were coming in my house maybe you should figure out which neighbor has been calling prank crimes on you , clearly it’s someone that knows the last few calls had done nothing to harm you so they elevated this one to get results!
Here we go again!!
They are an abusive mob, I have lived here for 30 years, and have seen the Sheriffs get away with this type of thing countless times.
Great… another lawsuit filled against the sheriffs Dept.
That taxpayers will pick up the bill for.
?
That’s no reason to be rude to crime victims. Some police should work on their empathy, general social skills.
Why was the original complaint so readily believed? Did they just blurt out the address and hang-up? How often is this how real crimes get reported ?
I feel very bad for your son, they don’t get over the trauma/humility very easily. The officers could have asked questions and allowed him his dignity. As for you in handcuffs, it’s protocol, they don’t know who did what or what they are up against. It’s how it happens. I suggest you find out who is doing this to you and turn them in. Hope it doesn’t happen again.
Sounds like someone doesn’t like this family. They, the family should be thankful the deputies respond at all instead of a simply phone call to the house since this is now the third time. Ungrateful people IMO.
Scumbags just looking for a payday. Deputies don’t know who is who in the zoo until they sort it out. Stop playing the victim. Maybe ask junior why his friends keeping swating your house.
“Scumbags looking for a payday”?
YOU live through this 3 times and tell me how YOU feel.
Why three times though? There has to be something to this. Obviously it’s illegal and morally wrong to swat a family, but why did it happen three times?
There’s no excuse for unprofessional behavior, here, at the border or from the White House. This is no way to build respect and trust in our public servants. Attacking the victim is equally repulsive.
Please dont make it political…! If indeed it was a hostage situation and they didn’t put him in handcuffs – the victims would be suing. There is 2 sides of the story and so far we only heard from him. Let’s give the cops the benefit of the doubt..
Kristina- Bullies must be treated as bullies, whatever their capacity.
Don’t give them a free pass; stand up for yourself and those you love.
Definitely two sides to everything. Clearly not all of the facts are laid out. I do think it is odd that they haven’t been able to find out who is making the calls or maybe it is from a public pay phone. That seems to be the bigger issue here is why it keeps happening. It sounds like a horrible situation and I can only imagine how traumatized the son is. But what if they didn’t take the complaint serious and something horrible happened. It just seems that cops are wrong no matter what they do. I know mistakes big mistakes have been made but it just seems like we forget cops are humans doing the best they can with every situation. What if they weren’t there at all. All I know is I am very greatfull that we have cops. We live in a hard world with hard situations. Cops are not gods and I think society expects them to be.
I would guess that the people responding so rudely to this gentleman are members of the sheriff’s department. Sounds like the same treatment he received from the deputies. I this had happened to me, I would be filing a complaint too.
If this is the 3rd time, then someone has been online making someone mad and these people steal friends address and info and send them out to their homes This happened to me many years ago and they also went to my parents house in Arizona. They finally caught them but it would have never happened if my then 23 year old son, had not been interacting with them. the police have to ast as if it is real everytime just in case it is real.
Our Sheriffs department is a joke . We had to sell our last home due to our old next door neighbor had Sun Downing syndrome . She called almost a dozen times to Watch Commander Rush stating I have a gun and I’m shooting up her lemon tree. Sheriffs kicked in my front door at 4am while we were sleeping due to the call regarding a firearm. We had to go to court and file a restraining order against our neighbor. The judge told here that if she files one more complaint on us then she would be arrested for filing a false police report. She called Watch Commander Rush a following 13 more times and no arrest was made. The deputies asked me ” Do you really want us arresting an 82 year old lady?”. The answer is YES!!!!!!!!!
I am shocked at the callousness of some of the responses here. It is as if the victims are on trial. I understand that the police have jobs to do, but dragging kids out in their underwear 3 times seems a bit harsh as well. Hopefully the complaint helps the Fedorovs and police to communicate better and avoid such situations in the future.
No good deed goes unpunished. LASD responded to a call with possible gun. They did the right thing as they too want to return home to their families at the end of their shift.
Just my opinion, but it sounds like the Federov’s should assist LASD in anyway they can to try and catch the one calling in the pranks. Its just as much of an inconvenience for LASD staff and resources, not to mention a situation like this can go very bad.
There has to be some sort of a link between the calls. There is more to this story than what is being shared. I would also be questioning the son…not because he’s at fault, but because he might know who the callers are but has been bullied or threatened to the point of fear, that he wont speak on it.
Bad situation for the family and LASD as they have real criminals and calls to deal with, but a lawsuit is not warranted.
Wow, the Sheriff’s Dept was rude, negligent and unprofessional… I’m shocked *eye roll*
Here it is folks.. our immigration laws are far too lenient Unfortunately our country lets Russian rats like Mr. Fedorov in our country It’s a shame what our country has become and how dishonest people try to make money off the system While us taxpayers go to work every day to pay for their bullshit Just remember Alexander Karmas a bitch???
I’m sure the same exact deputies didn’t respond to your house last time and had no idea it was a false report. What if it was real emergency this time? Stop playing victim. I have an idea. Hey sheriffs department don’t respond to help them out. When it’s a real emergency you will be sorry. I guarantee when they figured out who you were and there was no threat the handcuffs came off. How about praise and support our law enforcement and help them catch the real bad guys. Liberals like you are a disease and ruining this city and state. Shame on all the negative posts against our cops. They are our only line of defense between our families and evil.
Hey Rojo73, why don’t you grow up and get rid of your whollier than thou attitude! Come into the real world and realize that not all LEO’s are good. So quick to blame the victim and dismiss the incident. If your family was subjected to this are you saying it would be okay? Don’t say it would never happen because you don’t know, especially with the all of the insensitive people in this world like yourself.
Solidarity to you and your family, Alex. I hope you get justice.
This community has so many citizens that are quick to blame the victims of this situation. I would bet that you stay in your own little world and think you are above everyone. It doesn’t matter the reason they have had 3 calls like this to their home. Unfortunately there are immature people in this world that feel they have a right to scare and potentially harm others. There is no reasonable explanation for a deputy to have put handcuffs on ANYONE so tight that one’s hands turn purple. Once the deputies removed everyone from the house, determined there wasn’t a weapon, they should have released them. To make matters worse, those responding knew of the multiple calls that were previously made and again should have released the residents. The deputies that did this are a disgrace to LASD and their fellow LEO’s. They are the ones that give all officers a bad rep. I would suggest filing a citizen’s complaint with the department and request the names of the deputies in charge. Then hire an attorney and file a claim with the city within 6 months of this incident. If your son is having nightmares, get him in to a therapist who can help him get through it. There is nothing worse than having a child who is afraid of those that are suppose to serve and protect us. This world is the way it is because of people that think they are better than others. There are good officers and bad officers; those that are bad should be punished and removed from their position, not allowed to hide behind the badge and abuse their authority by harming victims of an immature possibly racially motivated phone call.
Hey Brent get your head out of you a**.
The bottom line is Alexander Federov is a well know scammer in our Community. Google his name. Yes !!! This man is a criminal. And his only reason to be here in the US is to take it advantage!!! of the American citizen!!!!!!!!!! F.A.R.!!!!!!