Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf, the 16-year-old Fortnite champion who took home $3 million in the first-ever Fortnite World Cup at Arthur Ashe Stadium in Flushing, New York, was the victim of “swatting” while live streaming on Twitch. The incident occurred on Saturday, August 10.
Bugha was playing Fortnite Arena Trios when he vanished for about 10 minutes.
When he came back to the stream, he informed his teammates that he had been swatted.
“I’ve been swatted,” Bugha could be heard saying. “Well, that’s a new one. They came in with guns, bro. They literally pulled up. That’s scary. What if I had just got popped? Jesus Christ, the internet’s f**king crazy.”
You can here Bugha discussing the incident at around the 17-minute mark in the video below.
According to ESPN.com, someone from another country — believed to be in Europe — called the Upper Pottsgrove Township Police to report an incident. The person acted as Bugha and claimed that he had shot his father multiple times and killed him while also tying up his mother in the garage. As a result, the police responded and surrounded Giersdorf’s home. Police called the home, which ultimately led to Bugha’s father answering the call and going to the front door.
One of the responding officers eventually recognized Bugha and the entire situation deescalated.
In case you were wondering, Bugha’s teammates were able to win the game while he was dealing with the incident.
What is Swatting?
Swatting is “the action or practice of making a prank call to emergency services in an attempt to bring about the dispatch of a large number of armed police officers to a particular address.” In the past, swatting has had fatal results.
On December 28, 2017, Tyler R. Barriss of Los Angeles called police to report a fake hostage situation which led to the shooting death of 28-year-old father of two Andrew Finch. Barriss pleaded guilty to 51 federal charges and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
