GTA 5 star Ned Luke defends Rockstar from blame after being swatted live on stream

Brad Norton
GTA 5 Ned Luke

Ned Luke has swiftly shut down any and all accusations attempting to blame Rockstar after the GTA 5 actor was swatted while playing their game live on stream.

Swatting has only continued to be a devastating issue in the streaming landscape. For ill-intending viewers who obtain personal details of a given content creator, they’re often seeking to make their lives a living hell.

Whether that’s by quite literally defecating on someone’s doorstep or by calling in a fake bomb threat and having a swat team descend on their location, we’ve seen it all over the years. Though given the very real risks associated with swatting, it’s one of the more common acts of malice. IShowSpeed has been swatted multiple times in just the past week alone.

On November 23, it was GTA 5 actor Ned Luke who came into the crosshairs, receiving a phone call mid-stream informing him that his property was being swarmed by a swat team. Though the nature of this incident had “nothing” to do with the developers behind the blockbuster franchise, Luke soon clarified.

Playing GTA Online with fans watching along live, some quickly ‘jumped to conclusions,’ as Luke put it shortly after.

“Rockstar failing to hide people’s IP addresses from modders could’ve resulted in one of the lead actors for GTA getting shot and killed,” one Twitter user claimed. “Rockstar should have solved this problem years ago.”

Not about to let the accusations slide, Luke swiftly jumped into the conversation and assured the swatting incident wasn’t related to him playing GTA Online.

“Y’all jumping to some large a** conclusions,” he replied. “This had nothing to do with Rockstar. These a**holes leaked my private info years ago and have been doing this sh** since.”

Evidently not the first time dealing with such an incident, Luke also replied to a story from another Twitter user claiming to have witnessed a prior dealing with local law enforcement.

When allegedly delivering pizza in the area, this individual supposedly noticed a number of cops nearby, all focusing on the address of the GTA 5 actor. However, even after having said pizzas delivered, Luke admitted he “never paid” the worker amid the chaos of it all.

About The Author

Brad Norton is the Australian Managing Editor at Dexerto. He graduated from Swinburne University with a Bachelor’s degree in journalism and has been working full-time in the field for the past six years at the likes of Gamurs Group and now Dexerto. He loves all things single-player gaming (with Uncharted a personal favorite) but has a history on the competitive side having previously run Oceanic esports org Mindfreak. You can contact Brad at brad.norton@dexerto.com