Twitch streamer’s grandparents raided by police after swatter gets wrong address
Instagram: supcaitlin / WikimediaIn another terrifying swatting incident targeting a Twitch broadcaster, an elderly couple had their home raided by police, as the prankster got the streamer’s grandparent’s address instead of her own.
Swatting is the illegal and highly dangerous act of making a false report to police, claiming that a serious crime has occurred or is underway at an address, in hopes of prompting an armed response to the location.
It is often targeted at streamers, because the trolls aim to have the moment captured during the broadcast. However, swatting has had deadly consequences in the past, and can result in length prison sentences.
On January 17, the home of supcaitlin’s grandparents was swatted, after it appears the prank caller believed it is where the streamer lived.
Streamer’s grandparents swatted
Supcaitlin, a Gen.G member and Twitch streamer with over 300,000 followers, explained the situation on Twitter.
“My grandparent’s house got swatted last night because the person who swatted me thought I lived there,” she said.
“My grandparents are fortunately fine, but they are old and don’t speak the best English so they are very scared and confused.
“The internet is a very scary place,” Caitlin concluded.
Swatting has been an alarmingly common occurrence, especially to target content creators, for over a decade.
In 2022, multiple swatting of big-name streamers took place, including Adin Ross and iShowSpeed.
xQc, the most watched streamer on Twitch, revealed that he was targeted with swattings almost daily, and so eventually had to move.
Although content creators can often make arrangements with police to counter the prank calls, in this case, a fake report to a different address would never have been caught.
The most infamous swatting incident which led to the death of an innocent father, led to the perpetrator being jailed for 20 years.
