He told the 911 operator that he was being held hostage by a man with a rifle

Nov 14, 2013 12:36 GMT  ·  By

22-year-old Michael Adams, of Marple Township, Pennsylvania, has been charged with false alarms to an agency of public safety, falsely reporting weapons of mass destruction and other charges. He called 911 and told the operator he was held hostage by a man with an AR-15 rifle and a bomb strapped to his chest.

According to Philly.com, Adams was actually trying to get himself “swatted.” Swatting is a practice in which someone calls 911 and has emergency units dispatched to someone else’s house based on a false report.

A SWAT team, a bomb squad and police were called to his next door neighbor’s house. When they saw that the neighbor was out of town, authorities paid Adams a visit.

He told investigators that he was having problems with the users of the hacking forums he was a member of, including with members of the Anonymous movement.

He said they might have tried to pull a prank on him, but they must have gotten his address wrong, which is why police went to his neighbor’s home. Adams said the hackers were constantly harassing him.

However, an examination of his computers showed that he was actually involved in up to six swatting incidents in various states, including the one in which he targeted himself.

Authorities believe the man wanted to get swatted in order to boost his reputation on the hacking forums. Detectives noted in court documents that Adams might have wanted to be equal to his peers, some of which had been swatted.

Swatting is common practice among the members of hacking forums. A few months ago, security expert Brian Krebs had a SWAT team sent to his house after some cybercriminals whose work he had investigated wanted to get back at him.