Fortnite World Champ Bugha Swatting Incident: Prank Caller's Location Identified

Fortnite World Cup champ, Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf was a victim of swatting incident while live streaming on Twitch on Saturday. Whilst most people found the pranking unconventionally cool, there were some who got more concerned and wondered who could possible do it?

The Fortnite champ’s identity is still unknown. But the police found a very valuable piece of information where the call originated. Upper Pottsgrove Township Police Officer, Cpl. Albert Werner reportedly told ESPN that the police department received a call from someone who pretended as Giersdorf. Although the fake caller’s identity is still unknown, they [police] believed that the call came from Europe.

Taking the identity and pretending as if he was Giersdorf, the prank caller who swatted the Fornite champ reportedly told the police that he — referring himself as Giersdorf — shot his father multiple times, leaving him dead and tied up his mother in their garage.

The police immediately responded to the incident and went straight to the Fortnite champ’s home and surrounded it. As a standard procedure, they [police] ringed the Giersdorf’s home and his father was the one who answered the call and after which, came outside to open the door.

Werner reportedly said that even though the incident took only half an hour, the resources spent involving the incident was a lot.

The term swatting is used when someone reports a fake or false emergency to get the authorities, particularly a SWAT team to run down a target who was not suspecting. The said act could be considered as criminal harassment.

Bugha was reportedly playing Fortnite Arena Trios when the incident happened. The match was nearing its end when he abruptly left his keyboard. His co-players reportedly heard him say he got swatted before disappearing for approximately 10 minutes. When he returned to the stream, he reportedly muttered the words that was a new one and confirmed he got swatted.

"They came in with guns, bro. They literally pulled up. ... That's scary. ... The internet's f---ing crazy," the Fortnite champ said. He added that he incident only got cleared when one of the policemen recognized who he was.

The act of swatting is no joke. The consequences for doing such is serious and lethal. In 2017, the policemen responded to a prank/fake call from California about a shooting and kidnapping incident that cost then-28-year-old guy named Andrew Flinch’s life, NBC News reported. The call reportedly pointed out that there was an ongoing crime at Finch’s house at that time.

Tyler Rai Barris reportedly agreed to serve 20 to 25 years in federal prison as part of the plea agreement after pleading guilty to a total of 51 charges from fake emergency calls in November. Barris was from Los Angeles.