Courtesy of eteknix.comA story has been circulating the interwebs that a fifteen year old boy in Louisiana is in serious trouble after “SWATTING” another gamer. The teen was supposedly sentenced to 25 years to life in a federal corrections facility after he called the police on a rival gamer.
However, this entire thing is a very detailed hoax, beginning with a parody website called National Report.
The “story” supposedly went down as follows:
“SWATTING” has been a prank used on gamers, by gamers, since 2013. The “prank” involves getting a hold of a person’s address and calling the police on them while they’re playing video games to a live video audience via the internet. The viewers then get to watch as local SWAT forces raid the residence. The calls usually involve the caller making a false report that the other user has assault rifles and/or has committed homicide.
That’s what fifteen-year-old Paul Horner told authorities when he called in multiple fake reports against rival gamers for beating him in Battlefield 4, a first-person shooter game for multiple popular consoles. During the SWAT raid that ended with him in custody, the rival gamer’s father was shot and critically wounded.
Horner was charged and tried as an adult under the Patriot Act of 2001 and was found guilty on two counts of domestic terrorism, both due to his abuse of law enforcement and because of the injuries caused to an innocent.
At the end of the sentencing, presiding Judge Arthur Digsby, told Horner that “although he felt bad for him, he is ultimately responsible for his own actions”.
“Ignorance of consequence because of lack of thought absolves no one. Thinking that your actions were only a prank did not make them only a prank,” Judge Digsby told Horner.
Following the sentencing, Judge Digsby issued a warning to all gamers and parents alike: “Leave your petty pride in the realm of digital fantasy where it is still safe, because, as young mister Horner has learned, actions in the real world don’t have a reset button. And every parent should make sure their children understand that.”
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