A 17-year-old in British Columbia, Canada—that’s him above—plead guilty to 23 cases of extortion, public mischief and criminal harassment. What does that mean, exactly? He’s terrifying.
Tri-City News has been following the case, in which the teenager recently admitted to a dozen other charges. It’s one of the few times a swatter has actually been forced to face the music, and when you read about what he’s pleading guilty to, you’ll be shocked it didn’t happen sooner.
This kid frequently targeted League of Legends players, and had more tricks than swatting:
The teen, who went under the same social media user or name (or a variation of it), would also retaliate by posting a target’s parents’ dates of birth, and social insurance and credit card numbers on the web, and had pizza which they had not ordered delivered to their home.
It especially escalated with women, according to The Province, another paper covering the case.
The teen found his targets — who were gamers and mostly female — online. When they would not acknowledge friend and follow requests or send him things that he wanted, such as photos, he would harass them and their families.
At the heart of the case against him was the story of his obsession with a female student at the University of Tucson. When she turned him down, he flipped out, as Tri-City News puts it:
On Sept. 16, 2014, after she repeatedly rejected him, the teen called the Tucson police to prompt a swat of her home, claiming he had shot his parents with an AR15 rifle, had bombs and would kill the police if he saw any marked vehicles.
Days later, he swatted her mother, too. Then, he put the credit card info of the family online, distributed their social security numbers, hacked into the girl’s Twitter and email accounts, and tried to cancel the family’s home utilities. It ultimately destroyed the family’s credit rating.
These weren’t the only people he tormented, and it eventually caught up with him, thanks to his obsession with sharing his attacks publicly online. (Then again, the reason he was sharing it in the first place is because it’s almost impossible to get convicted. It’s why people keep doing it.)
Even wilder, he was responsible for temporarily shutting down Space Mountain at Disneyland last year, netting him counts of harassment, extortion, uttering threats, breach of recognizance, and seven separate counts of mischief.
How’d he react as his case was laid out for friends, family, victims, and the court?
Wearing a sweatsuit, no shoes and shackles on his ankles, the teen smirked but showed little emotion during the proceeding, though often flipped his hair, drummed his fingers on his knees or pumped his leg quickly.
Sounds about right.
Tri-City News says he should be back in court on June 29. Have fun in jail, kid.
