Deputies responded to a potential false report of a bomb threat at Saddleback Medical Center in Laguna Hills on Sunday afternoon, Dec. 26, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department said.

A man called 911 from a cell phone at an unknown location at around 3 p.m. and claimed he was at the hospital with a bomb, Sheriff’s Department Sgt. Todd Hylton said. The man who made the call had not yet been located and there was nothing suspicious found at the hospital near Paseo De Valencia and El Toro Road as of 4 p.m., he said.

Investigators were working to determine if the man had made a “swatting call,” Hylton said, which is when someone calls authorities to make a false report of a threat.

“It’s basically somebody contacting 911 and making a false report of an immediate threat, such as a shooting or a bomb,” he said. “Some type of immediate threat to get a law enforcement response, the main goal is to get a large law enforcement response.”

Sheriff’s and Orange County Fire Authority personnel were at the scene to track down any potential leads, Hylton said. Even if the report was false, authorities will treat the threat as real until they can determine it was not, he said.

No one had been evacuated at the hospital, but some areas were being cleared as investigators searched for anything suspicious, Hylton said.

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