Coquitlam teen gets jail time for ‘swatting’ in the US
Posted July 9, 2015 11:46 am.
Last Updated July 9, 2015 4:55 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
PORT COQUITLAM (NEWS 1130) – A computer-whiz teen from Coquitlam who caused a temporary shutdown of a Disneyland ride and harassed more than 20 people online has been sentenced to 16 months behind bars.
The teen pleaded guilty to 23 counts related to “swatting” — tricking an emergency service to dispatching a response — in the US. He was accused in a number of fake plots, including a bomb hoax that shut down Space Mountain at Disneyland and threatening a mass school shooting.
The 17-year-old boy, who can’t been named due to his age, victimized a total of 29 people, mainly girls and young women or men related to them in some way. Officially, the charges range from extortion to public mischief and harassment.
He often targeted female gamers; if they didn’t give him what he wanted — which was often pictures — he would make fake calls to police, phone their homes at all hours of the night, and cause other irritations by making false taxi and pizza orders to his victims’ homes.
He also caused police to swarm his victims’ homes; in some cases, people were led out of their houses in handcuffs in front of their neighbours.
The boy’s mother, who cannot be named either, believes the 16-month sentence is fair. “I think he needs a little more time in the youth centre.”
“I just want him to be one that is happy and wants to go out and do things and not become this. This is not how I raised him to be,” she says.
She believes groups of people online influenced her son’s actions. “Once they showed him that he probably wouldn’t get any charges, he fell and just got into it.”
Before she sentenced him, Judge Patricia Janzen told the boy “a life as a loser” awaited him if he didn’t change his ways, adding that his so-called Internet friends didn’t care about him.
Beyond the 16-month sentence — eight of which he has already served — he will spend eight months under supervision in the community.
NEWS 1130’s Martin MacMahon gives more details about the case
