Butt Dial' and Rap Music Lands SWAT at Chicago Middle School

Oops.

That's all a Chicago-area couple can say after the husband, a school employee, accidentally "butt dialed" his wife, who in turn somehow interpreted the garbled call as a hostage situation at his school. That led to a SWAT team deployment and a very embarrassed man and wife.

"You know how when you sit on your phone when it's in your back pocket and it calls the last number that was dialed? His wife was the last number he'd dialed," Winnetka police Chief Joseph De Lopez told the Chicago Tribune. "The conversation led her to believe there was someone holding him hostage."

The wife quickly called 911. Soon, the Tribune says, "more than 30 gun-toting officers converged on Carleton Washburne School, which also houses the District 36 offices where the man works."

So was it just garbled language that led to the misunderstanding? Apparently not. The school superintendent blamed the confusion partially on the man's background music choice, which apparently included "gangster-like" lyrics.

"He was listening to music and he had, I don't know, hip-hop … or music like that, where there were lyrics that were gangster-like," explained Mark Friedman, interim co-superintendent of District 36, to the Tribune. "So there were lyrics on the radio as he was driving home, and she listened to it and became concerned."

The Tribune explains what happened next:

Armed with automatic weapons and wearing bulletproof vests, SWAT team members circled the school about 5 p.m. Monday, searching for a reported gunman who might be holding a hostage. The all-clear sounded nearly three hours later, after the man was found safe at home by police. [...]

About 500 seventh- and eighth-graders attend the middle school, but they had left for the day when the call was placed.

As for the school employee, "he's embarrassed," the superintendent said.

"Who wouldn't be? He's taking it hard that it created such a response."

(H/T: Gawker)