Halloween blasts were no treat in Lakeville

Mysterious blaring of tornado sirens alarmed residents, and officials were not amused.

Last update: November 5, 2009 - 9:57 PM

Last Friday proved to be fright night for some Lakeville residents, and it had nothing to do with Halloween. Blaring tornado sirens had them calling the police to find out what was going on.

According to Lakeville Police Sgt. John Kornmann, the city's emergency management director, four of five of the sirens in north Lakeville went off for no known reason at 9:15 that night, and two sounded at 7:15 on Saturday morning. The city is still trying to determine what triggered the sirens.

Kornmann said an equipment malfunction has been ruled out and no problems can be traced to the Police Department or the Dakota County Communication Center. He said the sirens are not equipped with the technology to trace the origin of the signal that set them off.

He said signals are sent by radio so there is not a computer program that could have been tampered with. But he said "a malicious act" still is a possibility.

One possibility the city is looking into is "atmospheric skip," which causes interference with the signal. But because the sirens have only been affected in the north end of Lakeville, Kornmann said it probably isn't the cause.

"If we can't locate the source, we have other options for solving the problem,'' Kornmann said.

DEAN SPIROS

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