KALAMAZOO COUNTY, Mich. -- "Swatting" is a recent trend across the country where police are tricked into thinking a crime worthy of major response from authorities, and a Kalamazoo County family is one of the latest victims.
Christian Sanders was playing the video game "Call of Duty" on Thanksgiving. He streams the game online so other gamers can watch. That stream also includes a chat room.
"I got a message on my stream, and it said my address," Sanders said. "That kind of scared me a little bit, because it was just someone random over the Internet."
After that message came across the 15-year-old's screen, the family received multiple calls from the city of Kalamazoo.
Mike Sanders described the call: "I answered it the third time, and she's like, This is city of Kalamazoo. We had a phone call. Did I just get done talking to you?' I'm like, 'No, I haven't talked to anybody,' and she said, 'Well, we had a phone call. Is everybody in the house okay?'"
Everyone in the home was okay.
But an earlier call to police said 15-year-old Christian had shot his mother. Shortly after that phone call, the Sanders said, three police agencies and more than 20 officers came to their home.
"We all had to walk out with our hands up, and it was a little bit nerve-wracking from that aspect," Mike Sanders said.
Christian Sanders says he plans to continue playing Call of Duty and streaming his games. But now the family says they'll take more precautions to make sure personal information, like their address, isn't as vulnerable to other also playing the game.
"We've talked a little bit about not necessarily having a whole bunch of people in watching," Mike said.
"If I see something in the chat like that, I'll ban them right away because I kind of let it go the first time I was seeing some stuff," Christian said.
The Sanders say police told them this type of crime can be hard to track, but the incident is under investigation.
