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Arts & Entertainment

The Biebs' L.A. Home Site of Another 'Swatting' Prank

Justin-Bieber-May-2012-shutterstock.jpg
Helga Esteb / Shutterstock.com

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Just like the title of Justin Bieber's album, when someone calls 911 about a person waving a gun, the cops are apt to "Believe." But in the case of the call that came in last night about such a person outside Bieber's L.A. home, well, it seems to have been yet another "swatting" prank targeting celebs.In response to the Tuesday night call, deputies from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Malibu/Lost Hills Station sent out "cars, helicopters, the works," reports TMZ, whose sources told them Bieber's people let the cops in to do a sweep of the home, but they found nothing. Deputies conducted a similar sweep on two other homes on the Calabasas block--a block that is home for "Travis Barker, Romeo, Kourtney Kardashian, and a number of athletes."

In the Kutcher case, the prankster used a teletype machine to submit the call. Last night, police told TMZ the incident was reported using an app.

The FBI came up with the term "swatting" a few years ago to describe a deliberate phony distress call that results in the police sending out the SWAT team. In L.A. it has been done recently to Miley Cyrus and Ashton Kutcher at their homes.

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