SALINAS, Calif. -- A SWAT team mistakenly busted into a Salinas family's home Wednesday night after police said someone made a fake 911 call.

What is baffling to police is that the 911 call was generated from a computer thousands of miles away in Chicago, officials said.

Investigators said it is a new cyber crime that is hitting police departments, and officials said it is a dangerous game people are playing.

Action News reporter Felix Cortez explained how the prank, called "swatting," happens.

Cortez said people are making fake 911 calls with the sole goal of getting SWAT team called to homes of unsuspecting people.

Late Wednesday night, more than a dozen police and one SWAT unit showed up at an apartment at the Point Apartment Complex on North Main Street.

They were responding to a 911 report that three armed men with AK-47 rifles were trying to break into the home.

Police said this was the first time they've seen anything like this, but they said it's a dangerous game that's happening all over the country.

Police said they have confiscated the computer the youngster was using in an effort to track down the person who made the fake 911 call.

The fake calls are also costly, officials said.

In this case, police said they are called out to a place they don't need to be, which they said could mean that the police aren't available to respond to real emergencies.

Police said the culprits are not exploiting any technical flaws in the 911 system.

The suspects, police said are using computers to trick the 911 system into thinking the emergency calls are being made locally.