Thread. In the very early hours of Monday morning, our home was SWATTed for the 3rd time in just over 2 years by the cyberstalkers who have been terrorizing us since Sept, 2018. Just before 1am, one of them made a false report of a shooting at our address. 1/
Using my name, they said they'd just shot and killed my wife in our home. This would be difficult, as my wife was out of town since Fri and only just returned an hour ago. Still, the plan was to draw out an armed, agitated police response, hoping it would turn deadly. 2/
Within ten minutes, exactly that happened as half a dozen MPD officers heavily-armed with drawn pistols, 12 gage shotgun, and M4 assault rifle, swarmed the duplex my wife and I own, banging on the door to the lower unit before moving to the upper where I was trying to sleep. 3/
Exhausted, without my contacts, and wearing only a bathrobe, I answered the door where I was dragged out with flashlights and guns pointed at me and handcuffed on my porch while demands to know who else was home with me (no one) if there were guns in the house (ah, yeah), etc. 4/
It took four officers to get me in the cuffs, as I already knew what was happening and they damned well did, too (more on that later). Remember, this was the 3RD TIME our home has been SWATTed.
From there, two officers restrained me while the rest entered our home without... 5/
...a search warrant or my consent. It should be noted they only searched the upper unit of our duplex, even though the specific address in the false report was for the lower unit, which they never entered. If my wife really had been dead in there, they wouldn't have found her. 6/
After clearing only half of the house, the officers came back down to the porch where I was being held against my will and finally took off the cuffs. My bathrobe was wide open by then, which is the very least fun I've ever had while naked and in handcuffs. 7/
Staggeringly, they six of them then turned and were just going to leave. No follow up questions. No "whoops, our bad." Nothing. Now as all of you reading this know I am usually a veritable zen garden of tranquility, but at this point I absolutely went off like Krakatoa. 8/
For the next several minutes, I tore strips off of each and every one of them at something approaching a death metal concert volume. Not just because this was the 3rd time the MPD fell for false reports sent by stalkers whose stated goal is my death, oh no. It's even worse. 9/
As you may remember, at least one of these stalkers leaves near daily explicit and graphic death threats in my voicemail. But a recent one stuck out, as it specifically threatened to SWAT our home, again. So not two weeks ago, I called the MPD to SPECIFICALLY WARN THEM... 10/
...that our stalkers were threatened to SWAT us againnand can you pretty please stop sending armed officers to our damned house in the middle of the night every time someone makes a false report. I spoke to two different people at District 1, including a Sgt and dispatcher. 11/
The first time our home was SWATTed was in late May, 2020 during the Covid lock downs. One of our stalkers created a fake Craiglist ad using my name, real phone nber and address, claiming I was giving away pepperoni I made from the bodies of kidnapped neighborhood children. 12/
They then used the fake ad as an excuse to make a false report to MPD, who dutifully sent out two officers to pound on our door at 11:30pm with their hands on their guns demanding to know where the children were. Their supervisor was brought in on that one and a case opened. 13/
But apparently the lesson wasn't learned because then in Nov, 2020, a bar I'm very fond of had a fire. The stalkers obsess over and monitor every detail of our lives so they were watching neighborhood groups and local news on FB. Within an hour, they'd made a false report... 14/
...that they'd seen me running away from the scene of the fire through alleyways and that night police were AGAIN dispatched to our house.
Which is why my remaining patience for this bullshit can't be measured by any human instrument. There are many stories of SWATTing... 15/
...across the country turning lethal when either a confused resident confronts who they think is a burglar, or when a trigger-happy cop jumps to the wrong conclusion based in false reporting. Yet many jurisdictions continue to treat then as little more than prank calls. 16/
It isn't. SWATTing is attempted murder. Full stop. It's a form of terrorism that tries to coopt the police into being assassins.
Fortunately, WI finally has an anti-swatting law on the books which makes it a felony.
But many jurisdictions still fail to take it seriously. 17/
There is no excuse in 2022 for a victim to have to explain what SWATTing is to a cop. And there is no excuse for every major city PD not to have established policies and procedures in place to flag and protect their citizens from repeated attempts. 18/
Fortunately, we are working with officers in the MPD to get pur address flagged in their system, and a new case and investigation has been opened. Let's hope the lesson sticks this time.
Oh and apparently I sounded so loud and scary, our neighbors thought I was a supervisor. 19/ https://t.co/Qw6HAuYVYU
Anyway I didn't really sleep that night, and then the next night I had to get up at 3:30am to try and buy Packers ticks for London that were sold out before I ever got out of the queue.
How's your week going? 20/20
Hearing now our stalkers are sending even more messages through website contact forms using my name and email.
I have not and will not send any messages through your website or email you about this. If you get any such message, you have been contacted by the people responsible.
Update. It happened again: https://twitter.com/stealthygeek/status/1559305248350650369?t=La6wp1gxPDbQHlW3TVjsUQ&s=19