Twitch streamer Diegosaurs is the latest broadcaster to be targeted by another illegal and dangerous ‘swatting’ – prompting officers to attend his residence on stream, suggesting it was a result of him beating players in Valorant.
Swatting is the act of making a false report to police, often of an extreme nature in order to elicit a swift armed response to what is usually described as a serious and violent crime taking place.
Streamers are often the targets of these swatting attempts, as the prankster can then watch as the situation unfolds – sometimes even to deadly ends.
For some of the most famous streamers, the threat of swatting is so common that they have to arrange special communication with local police forces, warning them of potential false flags.
Diegosaurs swatted during Valorant stream
On March 31, Diegosaurs was streaming Valorant – not his usual game, as he’s more often playing Apex Legends.
After playing a few games, and actually losing most of them, two police officers suddenly entered Diego’s room, and immediately realized they had wasted their time, upon seeing his setup, rather than an active crime scene.
“Somebody you beat apparently called the cops,” the officer explained. “Yeah, quit beating people!” another officer added.
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at least the cops were nice pic.twitter.com/Zo76dBRL7X
— DIEGO (@diegosaurs) April 1, 2022
This was a surprise to Diego, considering he’d actually been losing. One of the officers then joked “Can you just be terrible [at the game] so we don’t get sent out here?”
After apologizing, the officers tell Diegosaurs not to be sorry, and ask him about his streaming platform. Upon confirming it was Twitch, they even recommend looking out for one of their colleagues who streams on the platform.
Clearly, these policemen were very aware of the swatting routine, as well as being familiar with Twitch, which likely prevented this situation from escalating further, but not all streamers are so lucky.
Some have had weapons drawn on them and even been handcuffed. xQc, Twitch’s most-watched streamer, reports that he has been swatted frequently, but refrains from publicizing it to prevent copycats.