Hayward Man Tells Cops He's Hiding Under Dorm Bed With Pistols: Feds

HAYWARD, CA — A Hayward man previously sentenced to prison for making hundreds of harassing calls to law enforcement has been arrested again after federal prosecutors said he called university police in Massachusetts and threatened that he was hiding under a student's bed with pistols and a stun gun.

Sammy Sultan, 48, was arrested at his home Thursday morning and charged in Massachusetts federal court with a count of making threatening communications in interstate commerce. He was scheduled to appear in court in California at 1 p.m. Friday and appear in Boston federal court at a later date.

In May 2021, Sultan called the Tufts University Police Department eight times, threatening the department in six of them, charging documents alleged. In the calls, which collectively lasted about an hour, Sultan said he was hiding under a bed at an unidentified female’s dorm room somewhere on campus with a stun gun and pistols, prosecutors said.

Sultan repeatedly said he planned to zap the female with the stun gun once she returned to the room and found him underneath the bed, authorities said. The calls contained stun gun sounds as well as pistol-racking noises.

Police carried out a painstaking, hourslong search of rooms at numerous buildings on the university's Medford campus. The caller was never found.

Investigators later tracked the calls to California and a law enforcement officer familiar with Sultan’s voice from a separate investigation recognized his voice in the university threat recordings, authorities said.

Sultan previously pleaded guilty in December 2017 in northern California federal court to making hundreds of obscene and harassing phone calls to law enforcement agencies. He was sentenced to two years in prison in that case.

In the latest case, Sultan faces up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000 if convicted.