Los Angeles, CA – Justin Bieber has become the latest celebrity victim of the not-hilarious “swatting” prank.
What’s a “swatting” prank, you ask? It’s when someone puts a call in to 911 claiming that such-and-such a serious thing is happening outside of so-and-so’s home, prompting police officers and SWAT teams to turn out in force only to find that such-and-such a thing isn’t actually happening. It’s kind of like Punk’d , but only for cops, and not funny.
Anyway, TMZ reports that Justin Bieber unwittingly hosted the latest “swatting” prank last night when a 911 caller claimed that a crazed gunman was standing outside of Bieber’s LA residence.
“Police sent the cavalry … cars, helicopters, the works,” says TMZ . “Sources tell us … Justin’s security let the cops in, and they did a sweep of the house but found nothing. We’re also told cops did a similar sweep of 2 other homes on the block.”
Also of note: the “block” is a “super-exclusive area peppered with celebs” like Travis Barker, Romeo, Kourtney Kardashian, and a number of athletes.
According to Celebrity Gossip , Ashton Kutcher and Miley Cyrus have also been subjected to “swatting” pranks. The same thing has happened to dozens of other non-famous folk. In the Kutcher case, the prankster used a teletype machine in order to place the call anonymously. Police have determined that Bieber’s pranksters used some sort of app to place the call as well.
Is there anything the cops can do about “swatting?” Who knows, but our legal experts tell us that this sort of thing is generally considered a crime.
