Manassas Journal Messenger | Police called to a false alarm home invasion

People in Marumsco Village had a pretty good excuse to be late to work Wednesday.

The Prince William police S.W.A.T. team had their neighborhood locked down.

Prince William police were called to a home invasion at 13227 Armstead St. at 2 a.m. but later determined that the call was a false alarm, said Detective Dennis Mangan, Prince William police spokesman.

A man who lived at the address called police and told them there was a man with a gun in the house. Police believe the man made up the story, Mangan said.

“His story just didn’t pan out too well. Everything he described to us just couldn’t have happened,” Mangan said.

Neighbors learned about the event when police in camouflage knocked on their doors with alarming instructions, said a 58-year-old retired school teacher and his wife who did not want to be identified.

“They told us to turn off outside lights and get in the basement and stay there,” he said. “That’s what we did.”

“We were both sort of shocked by that,” he said.

The couple said they never expected a police

at their door in the middle of the night.

“Especially dressed like they’re in Fallujah and carrying machine guns,” he said.

After a couple of boring hours in the basement, the man’s wife went upstairs to make coffee.

While she was up there she saw a uniformed police officer running through the back yard.

“I ran back downstairs,” she said.

Lisa Early and her family, who live several houses down from 13227 Armstead St., didn’t go to their basement.

“We don’t have any furniture down there,” she said. “We stayed right here in the living room, but we laid low.”

Early said the police looked very “professional” in their camouflaged gear.

Watching the S.W.A.T. team members gave an insight into police department operations.

“You never really see anything that goes on except for car accidents,” Early said.”This was a good show of exactly what our county officers are trained to do.”

When the operation ended at about 10 a.m., it became apparent that the hidden S.W.A.T team members had the neighborhood well covered.

“We were watching S.W.AT. coming out from every back yard,” she said. “They could have been sitting up in our apple tree and wouldn’t have even known it.”

Jimmy Kershner, 22, lives next door to the house police had under surveillance.

Police had Kershner and his brother leave their house, Kershner said.

“They said it wasn’t safe to be here, ” Kershner said.

Police did not release the name of the man who called about the intruder.