A new era of celebrity stalking has started and this one has a funny name. Police say they have made an arrest in the case of a "swatter" who targeted celebrities such as Justin Bieber and Ashton Kutcher. Just to be clear, "swatting" is when someone makes a prank call sending police or SWAT teams to someone’s home. But police aren’t releasing many details on the arrest.
"Authorities would say only that the suspect was arrested Dec. 10 at his parents' Southern California home," said the LA Times. "They would not release additional details about his identity, exact age or background. The LAPD, which investigated the case with the Long Beach Police Department and FBI, cautioned that the investigation was ongoing."
Police said that they believe the boy played the prank on both Kutcher and Bieber, as well as others. But one recent victim of "swatting", Miley Cyrus, does not appear to be on the suspect’s list.
"We take these incidents very seriously because of the tremendous potential for something tragic to occur," LAPD Cmdr Andrew Smith told the LA Times. "We are working with the city attorney's office to see if the parents of this boy can be held financially responsible for the cost of the police response."
Bieber’s incident happened on Oct. 10 when the suspect allegedly called police reporting gunfire in the home.
"Unaware it was Bieber's residence, deputies arrived in force," said the LA Times. "They searched Bieber's residence and interviewed people on the property who told them no call had been made to authorities and that the pop star was away on tour at the time of the incident. They determined the incident was a hoax."
Kutcher’s incident happened just one week before that. According to the LA Times, a woman called police saying there was a man with a gun inside her home. When police arrived, they held Kutcher’s staff at gunpoint before determining that incident was a hoax.
Cmdr Smith said they have "strong evidence" against the boy, but it’s possible, that because of his age, we will never learn his identity.