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Arts and Entertainment

Crank Caller Sends Cops to Check Out Miley Cyrus Kidnapping

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Miley Cyrus in West Hollywood, July 2012 (Joe Seer / Shutterstock.com)
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Officers with the Los Angeles Police Department showed up to Miley Cyrus' Studio City home Wednesday evening with their guns drawn and a chopper hovering overhead, following a call reporting a possible home invasion and kidnapping. Only...no one was home, and the call was a prank.

The LAPD say they received the 911 report of "a kidnapping and a shooting" just before 6:50 p.m., according to City News Service, but it took about a half hour for them to figure out the whole thing was a hoax.

This kind of hoax is called "swatting," notes TMZ, who explain it's a prank that aims to get law enforcement out--especially the SWAT team--in response to an alleged serious crime.

LAPD Officer Karen Rayner says the cops don't take these kinds of pranks lightly, and if the caller is found, they could face severe penalties. TMZ adds the caller could be arrested, and, in a case where someone was hurt or killed as a result of the prank, "the caller could even face felony charges."

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We aren't sure where Miley was last night, but she wasn't getting any rest, according to her Twitter feed:

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