Fortnite champ ‘swatted’ at home
UPPER POTTSGROVE >> An Upper Pottsgrove teen who recently became a Fortnite champion was “swatted” during a live stream session.
Kyle Giersdorf, 16, who was recently awarded $3 million in a Fortnite championship, became the victim of a criminal harassment tactic known as “swatting.”
Swatting is when an individual deceives emergency services in order to get a large police presence to respond to another person’s address.
According to information released by police on Tuesday, Montgomery County Radio dispatched a call to Upper Pottsgrove Police in regards to a possible shooting on Saturday Aug. 10, at 11:08 p.m.
The caller, pretending to be Giersdorf, informed dispatch that he shot his father and had his mother tied up in the garage.
According to Cpl. Albert Werner with Upper Pottsgrove Police, the call was placed while Giersdorf was in the middle of live streaming a game of Fortnite with his friends that was being viewed by about 21,000 people.
Watch Creative w/ Carose from Bugha on www.twitch. tv
Officers on duty notified their supervisor and responded to the residence. A phone call was placed to the home and the homeowner advised that he would step out and speak to police. From there, the situation fizzled out quickly, according to Werner, who noted that although there was a significant police presence, a SWAT team was never called to the residence.
After determining that none of the residents were harmed and there was no threat to anyone in the area, police cleared the incident at 11:23 p.m.
Werner said the time difference in the call appeared to be about five hours and that he doesn’t believe the department will be able to get an arrest from the incident.
“This was done while he was playing this game. They may have been trying to interrupt him, I guess,” said Werner. “The bad part is numerous officers are responding. We can’t be somewhere else. If something happens somewhere else, we can’t go anywhere. People think it’s funny to do it to people and they don’t think about the things that could go bad.”
Werner said he could only recall one similar incident in the township that occurred over five years ago.