Austin shelter-in-place alert looked like a phishing text to many South Austin residents, but it was real

An emergency alert sent to more than 50,000 people in South Austin on Wednesday was real, but its unfamiliar look led many recipients to treat it as a scam. The message told residents to shelter in place because a "dangerous and violent" person with outstanding warrants was at large.

Several features set the alert apart from earlier messages sent by local agencies. It was written entirely in capital letters, and some recipients received a link reading "please click here to acknowledge receipt of this message." The text did not make clear which law enforcement agency had sent it.

Chris Bataska was at an office on Barton Springs Road when the alert arrived. Because the company has dealt with many phishing attempts, Bataska's first move was to email the message to the IT department, since the link looked different from the usual ones. "It just created some skepticism," Bataska said.

Bataska said the alert would have been more reassuring if it had named the agency behind it and included a link on a trusted domain such as ".gov."

South Austin resident John Stolz also described being "slightly confused and a little caught off guard." Stolz said the message "seemed really spammy" and that it would have helped to know who was sending it. Telling people which neighborhoods were affected would have been "extremely good," Stolz added. Stolz noted that other people on Reddit had reacted in much the same way.

About 30 minutes after the alert went out, the Austin Police Department confirmed on X that it was genuine. The department described the suspect as a muscular Black man in his mid-30s, wearing a white shirt and a white hat with a red brim, who was at large near the St. Elmo neighborhood. Police asked the public to stay indoors, lock their doors and call 911 if they saw the person.

The alert reached 51,789 people living within a one-mile radius of the intersection of Willow Springs Road and Industrial Boulevard.

Roughly 10 minutes after confirming the alert, APD lifted the shelter-in-place order. In a post on X, the department said that "after an extensive search it is believed the subject has fled the area."

In a statement, APD said its role in the incident was minor, as it was assisting the Texas Department of Public Safety and the FBI with the operation. The FBI has since confirmed that the suspect is in custody.