Celebrity 'swatting' problem may be tough to swat

Simon Cowell, Justin Bieber, Ashton Kutcher and Miley Cyrus are all victims of the hoax known as 'swatting.' No one's been arrested, and laws haven't caught up.

The distress call came Sunday around 1 p.m.: emergency in Beverly Hills. Someone was being held hostage at "Simon Cowell's." The victim, reported a female caller, was tied up with duct tape inside a bathroom at the brash British "X Factor" judge's hillside mansion.

A similar call reached the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department on Oct. 10 before 2 a.m. Someone inside a gated Calabasas mansion reported shots fired and said the gunman was threatening residents, making clear he'd put police in his cross hairs when they showed up.

Unbeknown to sheriff's deputies, that mansion belonged to the most famous teenager on the planet, Justin Bieber. Multiple squad cars were scrambled and heavily armed deputies arrived. They swept Bieber's residence and two others on the street before discovering it was all a hoax. The pop star, on tour at the time, was nowhere near the mansion.

Cowell was home when Beverly Hills police arrived at his residence. But there was no hostage negotiation, no armed standoff, nor were any arrests made. "The dispatcher believed the call was a hoax," said Lt. Lincoln Hoshino of the Beverly Hills Police Department.

Count Bieber and Cowell as the latest high-profile victims of "swatting," a fast-growing phenomenon masterminded by anonymous mischief-makers who alert police to a bogus crime situation, prompting a tactical response — sometimes by SWAT officers — that involves a high-risk search for phantom assailants. Several officers have already been injured responding to such calls, and officials, including Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck, fear that it's only a matter of time before events turn deadly.

"Swatting is a very real problem for those in the public eye," said Blair Berk, a criminal lawyer who has represented stars including Mel Gibson, Kanye West and Lindsay Lohan. "It is only a matter of time before someone dies because of this stupidity."

Read More: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-1128-swatting-celebs-20121128,0,3206670.story