Sean O'Malley releases footage of armed police storming house after hoax 'swatting' call
UFC bantamweight champion Sean O'Malley said he fell victim to a "swatting" hoax that led to armed cops storming his house.
The Notorious B.I.G. once rapped “Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems,” but even that song couldn’t have predicted some of the downsides of fame in the social media age.
UFC bantamweight champion Sean O'Malley released footage from a home security camera, as well as a camera pointed at him while he live-streamed while playing a video game, of his surprise when he saw what he said were four different police officers pointing AR-15 assault rifles his direction.
On the latest episode of his “Timbo Sugarshow” podcast with coach Tim Welch, O’Malley said he was live streaming while playing a video game online and saw police outside. He said he had a quick inclination that he might be a “swatting” victim.
Swatting is the act of making a call to emergency services to send them to a location where no emergency exists. Because the reports typically include highly dramatic scenarios like hostages and bombs, emergency response often involves S.W.A.T. teams, hence the term.
The act has increased dramatically in recent years with the rise of social media, and targets often are celebrities and internet and social media personalities who live stream some of their content. In some cases, the hoaxers can use a caller ID hack to make it appear as if the emergency call is coming from the actual residence. That makes the perpetrators of swatting hoaxes even more difficult to track down.
“I’ve heard about, like Adin (Ross) and the big streamers getting swatted,” O’Malley said on the podcast. “People find out where they’re at and they call the cops, say something happened that obviously didn’t happen, and then they’re f*cking getting swatted.
“I peek out my head out the window to see if maybe it’s something else, but then they’re on the intercom and I see a bunch of cops. They’re like, ‘Walk out with your hands up.’ So I f*ckin’ walk out, hands up. I was like, ‘I’m just going to listen. I could get shot.’ I was like, ‘OK, if I just listen to them, I’ll be all right.’ But you never know: Someone sneezes, pulls the trigger – I’ve got f*ckin’ shotguns pointed at me, AR-(15)s from like four different cops pointed at me. I was like, ‘I’m just going to listen and walk back.”
O’Malley said he was put into the back of a police car for more than a half-hour while officers investigated. He said the hoax call was a report that he had killed his parents.
“I was sitting in the back of that cop car in handcuffs and I was like, ‘Dude, that’s crazy: I had freedom five minutes ago. Now I have none. Zero.’ … They said I killed my parents or something like that, and they thought there was an active shooter inside.”
O’Malley said some of the officers didn’t know who he was, but others arrived and recognized him as a UFC champion. He said then the likelihood of a false report seemed to sink in for the police who responded to the call.
Most states have no specific anti-swatting laws, but the act typically falls under one or more of several different crimes. Convictions can result in jail time and fines.
O’Malley (18-1 MMA, 10-1 UFC) won the bantamweight title with a second-round TKO of Aljamain Sterling this past August at UFC 292. At UFC 299 in March, he defended the belt for the first time with a unanimous decision win over Marlon Vera, the only fighter who holds a win over O’Malley.
O’Malley has become one of the UFC’s most popular fighters. The 29-year-old Phoenix-based fighter has nine post-fight bonuses in his 11 UFC fights, including in each of his six straight wins.