A social media streamer became the target of a dangerous “swatting” hoax that prompted a large police response at a shopping mall in Arcadia, California.
Authorities rushed to the mall in the San Gabriel Valley, California after receiving a false report about an armed person inside the building. The call turned out to be a prank aimed at online personality Diego Zavaleta Penaloza, who was broadcasting live during a shopping outing.
Penaloza, who has more than 181,000 followers on the streaming platform Kick, was filming content with a young fan when officers suddenly entered the store where they were located.
Police response and mall lockdown
According to Penaloza, several officers rushed inside and ordered everyone to lie on the ground while they investigated a report that a person with a rifle was in the mall and planning to harm people.
Police temporarily placed the mall on lockdown while searching the area. After checking the situation, authorities determined the threat was not real and was part of a swatting prank.
Swatting is a dangerous tactic in which someone makes a false emergency call to send heavily armed police to a specific location.
Child frightened during incident
Penaloza said the situation was especially upsetting because he was accompanied by a 4-year-old fan who became frightened during the police response.
He and his girlfriend tried to comfort the child after the scare. Later, they took her to a cosmetics store where she helped paint their faces in an effort to calm her down.
Growing concern over swatting
Penaloza said he has noticed an increase in swatting incidents targeting online creators and urged people to stop making the dangerous prank calls.
Although he is used to receiving jokes and trolling from viewers, he said the incident was frightening because officers treated the threat as a potentially real and deadly situation.