The call came in just after 5 p.m. on Christmas Day and set off a frantic search for a United States senator.

Deputies flooded a gated neighborhood near the white sands of Florida’s Emerald Coast in December of 2023. They were responding to a terrifying report: a woman had been shot in the head with an AR-15, a man was tied up inside, and someone was demanding $10,000 to release the hostages.

The male caller, according to the Walton County Sheriff’s incident report, “sounded Russian.” He asked for a getaway car. The number was blocked. No name. No clues.

The beachside house at the center of the chaos belonged to Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville, blocks away from the scenic 30A highway in Santa Rosa Beach.

“It is believed that a technology was used to make the voice sound of a different ethnicity,” said Corey Dobridnia, spokesperson for the sheriff’s office. “The call came in from an anonymous number. But it was later tracked down to a bigger swatting scheme.”

It was the second swatting incident at one of Tuberville’s homes to occur on Christmas 2023. The other, previously reported, incident occurred at a home he owns in Auburn.

Swatting is the act of making a fake call to law enforcement in the hopes of deliberately causing a large police or SWAT team response. It’s considered dangerous to both first responders and victims.

Tuberville, earlier this year, announced that he has signed on as a co-sponsor to legislation that imposes strict federal penalties against people who make swatting calls. Penalties under the proposal include a 20-year prison term if someone is seriously hurt because of a swatting attack.

“Like many elected officials, Senator Tuberville has unfortunately been a victim of several swatting incidents, including the two that happened on Christmas Day 2023,” according to spokesperson Mallory Jasper. “He has also received numerous death threats, which has led Capitol Police to work with local law enforcement to conduct routine checks to his residence.”

The revelation of the second swatting incident at a house owned by Tuberville comes as questions continue over the former Auburn University head football coach’s residency, and whether there might be complications on meeting eligibility requirements to run for governor.

Tuberville has not officially announced plans to run for governor, but he remains a likely favorite to win the state’s top political seat in 2026. His current term in the U.S. Senate ends Jan. 3, 2027.

Frantic search

The scene that unfolded for an hour and a half led to heavy police presence within the gated beachside resort neighborhood. It also involved the U.S. Capitol Police, which was attempting to reach anyone on Tuberville’s staff to see if he was inside the house at the time.

When authorities arrived at the house, they saw that there were lights upstairs, and a dog was on the outside patio. A few of the officers had approached the house with shields.

Authorities continued to make calls to get in touch with Tuberville, according to the incident report. The efforts also included a call to U.S. Rep. Barry Moore, R-Enterprise, who knows some of the members of the Walton County Sheriff’s Office. Authorities asked Moore if he could get in contact with Tuberville since they could not reach his staff.

At around 6:37 p.m., Tuberville arrived at the house.

“Tuberville was not at the address at the time the call came in,” Dobridnia said. “But he arrived a short time after.”

Investigation

Later in the night, the Auburn house owned by Tuberville was also the site of a swatting call that prompted the Lee County SWAT team to close off the street where the house is located.

The Walton County Sheriff’s Office closed the investigation into the Santa Rosa Beach case in April 2024. It was then handled by federal agencies and was added to a much larger case involving the U.S. Secret Service.

Walton County authorities believe the swatting incident at Tuberville’s house might have been one of hundreds orchestrated by 18-year-old Alan W. Filion of Lancaster, Calif. He was sentenced in February to 48 months in prison for making interstate threats and being connected to over 375 swatting and threat calls from August 2022 to January 2024.

While not identified by name as a victim in Filion’s plea agreement, prosecutors described an unnamed U.S. Senator as having been swatted on that Christmas Day in 2023. The description followed closely to that of the Santa Rosa Beach call to Tuberville’s beach house, including fictitious homicide, hostage and ransom demand.

“Swatting is a serious problem that must be addressed,” Tuberville said in a statement in January when he co-signed onto legislation called the Preserving Safe Communities by Ending Swatting Act, a four-page bill introduced by Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott.

Residency

Tuberville’s statement also included this statement, “my home was swatted twice around Christmas (2023) in a dangerous attempt to intimidate my family and me.” He did not include any specific details.

He said that police shouldn’t have to use “valuable time and resources answering hoax calls when they could be protecting communities and getting criminals off the street.”

It’s unclear where Tuberville and his family were celebrating Christmas in 2023. Tuberville, in July 2023, purchased a home on Ridge Road in Santa Rosa Beach, Fla., which is approximately 2 miles away from the beach house that was targeted with the swatting call.

Tuberville’s multiple homes in Florida have raised questions about whether he lives in Alabama. He was criticized with residency questions during the 2020 Senate campaign and was called “Florida Man” by former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions ahead of that year’s GOP primary runoff.

The residency issue has resurfaced as Tuberville has floated a possible run for governor while forgoing a second six-year term for the Senate.

Related: Tommy Tuberville not the first to raise election residency questions: Do Alabama voters care?

Unlike senators, who do not have strict residency requirements, the Alabama Constitution requires that the governor and lieutenant governor be residents of Alabama for at least seven years “next before the date of their election.”

Tuberville has downplayed the issue during interviews earlier this spring. State Sen. Sam Givhan, R-Madison, hinted that residency may linger as a party concern during a radio interview last month when he said that owning a house in Alabama is “not enough.”

However, Alabama GOP chairman John Wahl has said that Tuberville’s March 2019 voter registration in Alabama falls within the required window to make him eligible to run in 2026. Tuberville and wife, Suzanne, both voted in Walton County, Fla., during the November 2018 election.

Candidates who want to run for governor can begin fundraising efforts 12 months before an election, which is later this month on May 26.