High Desert 911 Dispatchers Targeted By German Bomb Hoax

BLUEWATER, Calif. – The quiet community of Bluewater rests on the banks of the Colorado River. Not much happens here, that was, until a German rap group came to town. In a publicity stunt for their new album, the Germans created a website (http://vpk-tv.com/) for a fake TV station.

The Baghdad Street Boys posed as terrorists and created fake news video claiming they took over a bar in isolated Bluewater and were going to blow the place up with hostages.

German news agencies believed the story and flooded San Bernardino County Sheriff’s dispatchers with calls last Thursday. They wanted to know more about the terrorist attack. After a few hours of deputy patrols, they determined it was a hoax.

Arden Wiltshire with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department explains, “It’s very frustrating to have to chase around information that is somewhat vague and try to determine if something of this magnitude had indeed happened.”

A few hundred people live in Bluewater, on both sides of the California-Arizona border. Most we talked to say the German rap group should face criminal prosecution.

“They ought to be arrested, tried, and put in jail as an attempted terrorist attack,” says resident George Whitaker.

The real community of Bluewater, California doesn’t have much of anything, let alone any targets for fake German terrorists. Most of the town is actually across the Colorado River in Arizona.

Resident Bob Trevett adds, “When these types of things happen, it’s using taxpayer dollars and the resources of the police and blocking the 911 number and all. No matter who is doing it, I think its wrongand it should be prosecuted.”

German news organizations are left embarrassed believing the hoax. The German rap group is now notorious for pulling it off. San Bernardino County Sheriff’s ready to fight back.

“We could go after the producer of this movie or whoever put this website up and try to re-coop costs incurred in chasing around a hoax,” says Wiltshire.