Streamer targeted in dangerous “swatting” prank at LA County mall
By Nicole Comstock
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LOS ANGELES (KCAL, KCBS) — Police swarmed a San Gabriel Valley mall after a hoax left people stunned and afraid.
Social media personality Diego Zavaleta Penaloza was streaming a shopping spree with a 4-year-old fan at a mall in Arcadia when someone pulled a “swatting” prank on them.
“I get trolled a lot,” Penaloza said.
Penaloza has 181,000 followers on the streaming platform Kick, where he posts day-in-the-life-style videos for fun.
“My fan bases comes up to me and tell jokes a lot,” Penaloza said. “I thought it was just another one of those jokes.”
Several officers bolted into the store where Penaloza and his group were in and commanded everyone to get on the ground.
“He told me there was a guy in the mall with a rifle that wanted to kill people and they described me,” Penaloza said.
Police temporarily put the mall on lockdown until they confirmed it was a hoax.
“They have to treat it like a real situation,” Penaloza said. “They came to the mall, like SWAT, big guns. I got really scared.
Penaloza and his girlfriend did their best to calm their young fan.
“When she fell down and started crying, I felt really bad,” Penaloza said.
They took her to a makeup store after and let her paint their faces. Penaloza said he’s seen other streamers getting swatted recently and it needs to stop.
“Just some donuts on the internet that have nothing better to do,” he said. “Please stop swatting us streamers, we just want to stream.”
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