The Hall County Sheriff's office latest police agency to fall for an expensive hoax.

For more than two hours recently Hall County Sheriff's deputies and GBI agents locked down a quiet Flowery Branch neighborhood, costing taxpayer's money and resources and inconveniencing neighbors on a report of a family taken hostage and a bomb.

It was all a hoax called "Swatting." The trick is to get 911 dispatchers to send out emergency responders.

Sheriff's Major Wooddrow Tripp said, "The phony report came from someone using a gaming device, such as an Xbox with internet connection".

Police agencies in Gwinnett and Barrow counties have also fallen for the hoax.

Taxpayer money was wasted, and resources tied up.