Khloe Kardashian and husband Lamar Odom are the latest victims to be "swatted." Urban Dictionary defines swatting as, "A goal achieved by hacking where the hacker tricks 911 systems into deploying SWAT to an unsuspecting victim's home under false pretenses."
Police received a scary, fake phone call that Odom and a friend were arguing inside the house and the friend shot the NBA star, TMZ reports. Cops showed up to the Kardashian's house with guns drawn. Khloe was not home at the time but Odom was. When the cops arrived they realized everything was fine and it was another prank.
Khloe and her husband are not the only victims of this dangerous prank.
On April 4 cops were called to Rihanna's home after a 911 call claimed the that two men entered the singers' house and someone had been shot. LAPD responded to call but thought it was a prank.
In January, Chris Brown was also the victim of a swatting prank. Police were called to his house after a 911 call reported a domestic dispute. Police realized it was a prank after they arrived at his house and no one was home.
According to the New York Post, CNN host Anderson Cooper was also swatted after police arrived at his Long Island home after receiving a call that his wife had been shot. After arriving at the home they realized it was a prank.
Many of other celebrities have been swatted recently including Tom Cruise, Justin Bieber, Diddy, Magic Johnson, Clint Eastwood, Kris and Bruce Jenner, Justin Timberlake, Selena Gomez, Ryan Seacrest, Ashton Kutcher and Miley Cyrus.
The LA Times reports that due to growing number of celebrity swatting hoaxes the California Senate approved an "anti-swatting" bill. Offenders would pay restitution including the full cost of the police response, which could be $10,000 or more, says Sen. Ted Lieu who introduced the bill. Lieu was the victim of swatting himself when police showed up to his house after a fake call said the senator had shot his wife.
