Paris Hilton Victim of Attempted SWATting — Again
TMZ, as always, has the story first:
Hi, my name is Paris and I’m a two-time victim of … SWATTING.
Welcome Paris.
TMZ has learned Paris Hilton re-joined the celeb swatting club when someone called 911 pretending to be her, and told cops she was trapped in her bedroom with a gun to her head.
Multiple police cars rushed to Paris’ L.A. mansion to search for intruders after the call came in last weekend — but all they found were Paris’ pooches chillin’ by themselves.
The LAPD adopted a strategy of not confirming these SWATtings. If that was a way to keep publicity from encouraging copycats — or (a cynic might say) an attempt to avoid looking ineffectual — it has failed, on both levels. TMZ gets the story every time, and LAPD looks like they can’t stop SWATtings from happening — again and again and again.
My suggestion for a Plan B? Catch the perpetrator.
(Then, when you do, consult California criminal law expert Ted Rall regarding what crimes to charge.)
By the way, there is an interesting detail on the Miley Cyrus SWATting from Friday night: the caller was reportedly a woman.
According to our sources, cops received a 911 call at around 8:55 PM last night from a female claiming to be calling from her closet and reporting shots fired in her home.
The roll call of the SWATted: Paris Hilton (again); Miley Cyrus (again); Khloe Kardashian and Lamar Odom; Anderson Cooper; Magic Johnson; Mike Rogers; Wolf Blitzer; Ted Lieu; Erik Rush; Ryan Seacrest; Russell Brand; Selena Gomez; Justin Timberlake; Rihanna; Sean Combs; Paris Hilton; Brian Krebs; Clint Eastwood; Chris Brown; the Jenners and Kardashians; Tom Cruise; Simon Cowell; Justin Bieber; Ashton Kutcher; Miley Cyrus; Aaron Walker; Erick Erickson; Mike Stack; and me.
I can think of a couple dozen people who need to be on high alert for something like this happening to them again.
UPDATE: I updated the roll call list to add Mike Rogers, whom I had been omitting. I also placed the celebrity SWATtings in reverse chronological order.
Protip: don’t ask the FBI for help. I made that mistake.
Patterico (e0d846) — 5/19/2013 @ 9:39 am1- I hope you have a German Shepard, Rottweiler and a doberman at your house.
mg (31009b) — 5/19/2013 @ 9:44 amThis is a very dismaying trend, and I hope a stop can be put to it before someone gets hurt.
The Sanity Inspector (648b7b) — 5/19/2013 @ 9:47 amLooks like I’ve been leaving Mike Rogers out of these roll call lists. Am going to go back and fix that for all posts published after it happened to him.
Patterico (e0d846) — 5/19/2013 @ 9:49 am…and I haven’t thought about T3d R@ll since the mid Aughties, so successfully had I put him & his anti-military ‘toons out of mind.
The Sanity Inspector (648b7b) — 5/19/2013 @ 9:50 amI hope some central investigating body compares voice prints, looks for internal matches, and also contrasts with voiceprints of persons of interest as they become available.
Former Conservative (6e026c) — 5/19/2013 @ 10:46 amYears ago I tore down a poster that had a cross hair on Paris Hilton and also had some words to the effect of kill her, but maybe it was implied. I found it disturbing, and at the time I didn’t particularly like Hilton.
There are some malicious folks about.
Former Conservative (6e026c) — 5/19/2013 @ 10:49 amWhat is the motive behind swatting a person like Paris Hilton or Miley Cyrus? Is it just a thrill to watch it on TMZ or hear the call on a police scanner?
Mattsky (d6e293) — 5/19/2013 @ 11:02 amI wonder if the responding cops know at the time of their response whether or not the call came in from a “confirmed” line, like a landline tied to the property in question, as opposed to one of those internet calls that are very likely faked.
Even with cell numbers, can they tell if it came from a burner or a number with a billing history? And even with a cell, they should be able to tell if the call is coming through a tower that covers the address in question.
There are ways that they should be able to isolate the likely spoofed calls, and I hope that they are collecting the info and giving it to the responding officers.
Anon Y. Mous (8ec442) — 5/19/2013 @ 12:15 pmUnless it’s the Dallas FBI.
DRJ (a83b8b) — 5/19/2013 @ 12:18 pmIn perusing that list of celebrities and notables who have been SWATTED, I simply am unable to identify this “me” character.
askeptic (2bb434) — 5/19/2013 @ 12:21 pmWhile your list would outwardly seem like a lot of people, when you compare it to the population of the entire United States of America, it really doesn’t seem like that big of a deal to me. JUST LIKE LIGHTNING STRIKES!
Remember when you were such a dick to Radley Balko about his chronicling of the mistaken drug raids?
I do.
OopsyDoopsy (44a2a2) — 5/19/2013 @ 12:41 pmI have often felt the temptation to give Ms. Hilton a good swat, but you really should do that sort of thing yourself.
C. S. P. Schofield (adb9dd) — 5/19/2013 @ 4:13 pm“…she was trapped in her bedroom with a gun to her head.”
And if that were the case, how exactly is she making the phone call? The guy with the gun to her head didn’t notice?
The hoaxer needs to work on his/her story writing methinks.
Steven Den Beste (99cfa1) — 5/19/2013 @ 4:47 pmWASHINGTON (AP) – The president and chief executive officer of The Associated Press on Sunday called the government’s secret seizure of two months of reporters’ phone records “unconstitutional” and said the news cooperative had not ruled out legal action against the Justice Department.
Icy (e32060) — 5/19/2013 @ 4:58 pmOopsy,
As a fan of Balko’s, let me just say stop being a dick. Pat may have been wrong on the drug raid issue, but instead of using this experience to try and persuade him of the similarities, you just want to kick dirt in his face.
You change no minds when you argue this way. You make it ten times harder for people like me to try and engage in an actual debate, which I have yet to see Pat back down from. If you’re trying to help the cause, you’ve failed miserably.
Now go to your room and think about what you’ve done.
Ghost (2d8874) — 5/19/2013 @ 4:58 pmPat,
The cops won’t change policies or attempt to confirm because they enjoy swatting as much as the pranksters do. If they didn’t enjoy rolling out in armored cars with full-auto machine guns, at least one of them would say out loud, “Are we sure this time? Putting on all this gear is a pain in the ass. Not to mention how much money we’re wasting here. Did anyone think to try calling Ms Hilton? I mean, we should have her number or a way to get a hold of her on file from her numerous run ins with us. Anyone? Was it even a woman that called? No? Ah, f**k it, lets just go check it out.”
They know this I a problem. They’re lack of desire to fix things speaks volumes.
Ghost (2d8874) — 5/19/2013 @ 5:09 pm*is, not I.
Ghost (2d8874) — 5/19/2013 @ 5:10 pmGhost, it comes under the category of….
Use it or lose it!
askeptic (2bb434) — 5/19/2013 @ 5:15 pmPerhaps Mr. Dipsy Shitsy should step outdoors and put that theory to the test.
Icy (e32060) — 5/19/2013 @ 6:12 pmAt least they didn’t kill Paris Hilton’s dogs.
somebody (4934c4) — 5/19/2013 @ 8:29 pmbut probably only cause of they don’t shoot good
happyfeet (8ce051) — 5/19/2013 @ 8:47 pmthey could probably stand to take lessons from tumblr boy
happyfeet (8ce051) — 5/19/2013 @ 8:47 pmHence why our taxes never seem to go down… There is a conservative, small government solution to this…
Ghost (2d8874) — 5/20/2013 @ 11:43 am