For the first time, 12News is hearing from a man, who was the victim of a cruel hoax – swatting.
It is the act of deceiving an emergency service, into dispatching an emergency response based on the false report of an ongoing critical incident.
It has happened across the country, and it did in Port Neches last April.
A SWAT team surrounded the home of Joe Langham, because a dispatcher got a 911 call from a man claiming he had shot his mom, and had a bomb strapped to his sister.
The caller gave Langham's address, which used to be on Saba Lane in Port Neches last year.
"Me being innocent and not knowing anything, I kind of hid in the grass for a minute and jumped back inside my house,” said Langham.
After a two-a-half hour standoff, police realized Langham was innocent, and they determined the call was made through "Google Voice" in Oklahoma.
19-year-old gamer Parker Little of Wagoner, Oklahoma pleaded guilty in the Eastern District Court of Texas to federal charges of making a false bomb threat.
"It's been a big relief,” said Langham. “It feels like a win for me."
Langham said he is not a big gamer, and he did not really know what swatting was when it happened to him.
But among gamers, like some at Lamar University, they know exactly what swatting is.
"Coerce people into making themselves better on social media or getting followers for gaming purposes,” said gamer Austin Hale
Gamers can make money off subscribers on live-stream accounts on gaming websites like Twitch.
"People just like to get famous off of that stuff,” said Hale.
Someone can pay five dollars to subscribe to a gamer’s channel.
“Two dollars and fifty cents, which is half of it, goes to the streamer,” said another gamer Levi Buillion
Gamers said swatting is uncommon, and police told us the crimes are rarely solved.
As for Langham, who lives in western Texas now, he still does not know why the "swatter" would target him.
"That is a question I would love to find out,” he said. “I'm not going to go talk trash, you know, like a lot of people do online. That's not who I am.".
As for the man who made the prank call on the Port Neches home, he faces a term of imprisonment of not more than 10 years, a fine not to exceed $250,000.
A sentencing date has not been set yet.
