Roswell man pleads guilty in ‘swatting’ case

Bomb threats were called in using an assumed name

A Roswell man pleaded guilty Monday to making bomb threats to a store and a school in southern Delaware last year.

Stephen Scott Landes, 29, used his cellphone to call in bomb threats to a Walmart and an elementary school in Georgetown, Delaware, in May 2018, according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court.

Landes, who pleaded guilty in Wilmington, Delaware, to making the two threats, faces up to 10 years in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 27.

Investigators say Landes posed as Rodney Allen Phipps, a Georgetown resident, whom he met online and had developed a hostile relationship with. Landes gave Delaware police Phipps’ address when he called in the threats, and he told dispatchers Phipps had two children and a bomb buried in the basement, according to the complaint.

Landes told investigators he was “swatting” Phipps. Swatting is the practice of sending false reports to law enforcement, prompting a response by law enforcement agents, including a SWAT team.

Texts and online messages obtained by the FBI show conversations Landes had with other people he met online in which he bragged about calling in the threats. Phone records also show Landes tried to hide his phone number using the keys *67 when he made several calls to the Walmart, elementary school, Georgetown Police and Fire Department and the town of Georgetown.

Landes told investigators in July 2018 that he made the threats at the Walmart and the elementary school.

“I did do it. I admit that,” he said, according to the court document.

According to the complaint, Landes told investigators Phipps had been harassing him and his family for almost five years.

The complaint also says Landes called in a bomb threat to the White House. Landes told investigators he realized he had made a mistake and changed his phone number after the Secret Service called him back immediately.