I'm a streamer. I stream various FPS ghames. I basically got swatted back in December from Twitch chat.
It was a crazy experience. Basically a chatter was chatting strange messages on my chat. One of them was "hey dude I would like to call you". And his last message "lol failed swatting attempt". He basically left.
Lets just say that after he left my stream, 10 mins later, a freaking helicopter was flying above my house, and SWAT officers all over my front, side, and backyard....
My parents were confused and freaking out, told them that was got swatted, and it's best to go outside and explain. When we went outside, basically 20 SWAT officers aimed their shotguns, pistols, and rifles at us.. ohh.. and a riot shield as well...'
When we went outside and out our hands up, I've just shouted "I CANNOT BELIEVE I JUST GOT SWATTED!!!". Then, it got awkward silence and heard a "ohhh..".
When they handcuff us, the first thing the officers asked is if I was a gamer... lolz.
I've explained everything, they still went to my house, and basically everything deescalated quickly. I was very glad no one got hurt.. or even freaking killed. We chatted for nearly 30 mins.
They said they tried to trace the caller, but they couldn't. Even asked me if I would like to press charges or file a case... but i', like "top who tho?!?! WHO?!?!". And they shrugged and admit that this is becoming an issue here in our county.
as for how I got Swatted, it's still a mystery. But a tech buddy who's into cybersecurity told me that that caller possibly got into Twitch severs, and somehow manage to find my IP address or stream key. He said that could probably be prevented if I have a VPN.
Overall, again, glad that my family and I didn't get hurt. It was overall a crazy and embarrassing experience tbh..
Damn man, glad you're okay. I would've filed the police report just to have a paper trail and statistic for the crime, even if it probably wouldn't have done anything, but oh well.