These sorts of incidents often involve sending a large number of armed law enforcement personnel to a specific address, and is usually the result of someone making a call to emergency services and reporting a fake crime. This “prank” has led to some pretty horrific results in the past. One particular streamer claims that a couple nearly resulted in his death. The said streamer in question is Brad Overbey, otherwise more commonly known via his online handle, Drift0r. In a recent video uploaded to his YouTube channel, Drift0r talks about how the numerous attempts of having his home swatted have had him close to death multiple times.
Drift0r Explains Horrific Swatting Encounters
In his video, “Low Testosterone almost killed me”, Drift0r talked about his multiple swatting. In particular, he singled out the multiple swattings he received in 2019 and 2020, as he battled against low testosterone. Roughly around halfway through the video, Drift0r talks about how he “almost died four or five times” when armed law enforcement personnel entered his home in Texas. He explains how one other creator streamed footage of one of his fans coming to Drift0r’s house while wearing a ski mask and a gun. He then adds that this was just one of the many and that other people have been harmed in these attempts. As explained earlier, swatting is a very dangerous prank that’s gotten out of hand numerous times. However, it’s not necessarily new. But, it was only in recent years that it became part of public consciousness. This is mostly the result of multiple incidents resulting in the untimely deaths of completely innocent individuals. Because of how callers often provide incredibly detailed but false threatening information, responders often respond in full force. The situation then escalates and ends in a misunderstanding with violent results. In his video, Drift0r describes the situation as “constant violence” against his family members and himself. He also shared that he is only able to come out with the details now after some of the perpetrators were arrested. Although he claims he wanted to keep these incidents completely private, the constant threat forced him to talk more about such behavior with his audience. In a way, this “prank” is basically a form of criminal harassment and should not be encouraged. Swatting never was and never will be funny. It’s an act that should be criminalized with even heavier penalties. However, if there’s one positive thing to come out of this, it’s Drift0r’s choice to highlight the issue. In particular, when talking about the repercussions. In doing so, we’re hoping it will deter individuals from ever thinking about committing such a horrible act.
