Cop accused of calling another police department to report fake crimes while on duty: 'He thought it was funny'

A cop in Alabama seems to have lost friends in law enforcement after he was accused of reporting fake crimes to a police department in another jurisdiction while on duty.

On February 7, Christopher Eugene Sanspree Jr., a 23-year-old officer with the Montgomery Police Department, was arrested in connection with allegations of filing reports about false incidents, also referred to as "swatting," a police press release claimed. According to reports, Sanspree made at least six swatting-related calls to police in Prattville, Alabama, about 15 miles northwest of Montgomery, during a three-month span last year.

Prattville Police Chief Mark Thompson claimed that the first call came on October 30 and the last known swatting-related call from Sanspree came in late December. During these calls, Sanspree apparently let his imagination run wild, allegedly reporting false incidents of a suspect wielding a machete, people breaking into vehicles, and discovering a man shot in the front yard of a home.

"These falsely reported incidents were serious in nature and required a substantial amount of resources to respond to each call as well as a considerable amount of investigative resources to be expended," the Prattville PD press release claimed.

According to Chief Thompson, Sanspree admitted that "he thought it was funny."

Thompson, however, was not amused. "Point blank, honest with you, it pissed me off," he told WSFA. "We have enough to deal with, with the image of police officers, already, and then we have somebody do something like this, and he was on duty when he was doing this."

"It highly irritates me and other law enforcement chiefs that are trying to keep the image of law enforcement being a honorable career, and then we have people like this doing stunts like this," Thompson continued.

Capt. Raymond Carson of Montgomery Police Department confirmed to the outlet that Sanspree has been with the department for just over two years, that he was on patrol duty when Prattville officers arrested him, and that he has since been placed on "administrative assignment."

Sanspree faces six counts of false reporting an incident in the state of Alabama. However, investigators are also exploring whether Sanspree may be involved in similar swatting reports in Georgia, Massachusetts, and Wyoming.

He has bonded out of custody. It is unclear when he is next expected to appear in court.

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