Teen Reveals Motives Behind Swatting Celebs Like Justin Timberlake and Others

Justin Timberlake is the latest star to be swatted. INSIDE EDITION speaks to one teen who served time in detention for pranking emergency SWAT teams to celebrity homes.

A tour bus loaded with sightseers was shocked to discover police gathered outside Justin Timberlake’s Los Angeles mansion.

As a helicopter hovered overhead, the tourists are told the 911 call is nothing but a fake. 

One tourist said, “They said there was a shooting at Justin Timberlake’s house, but it's not true.”

The hoax involving Timberlake is part of a rash of fake 911 calls aimed at big name celebrities.

Just last week, cops also responded to the homes of Selena Gomez, Rihanna, and Sean Combs.

"Swatting" is when someone calls 911 to report a violent crime in progress, sending a swat team racing to the scene.

Only a handful of swatters have been convicted. One of them is a teenager named Ashton Lundeby.

Lundeby was only 16 when he was arrested after calling in fake bomb threats to Purdue University in Indiana among other colleges.

Lundeby said, “You'll call police, FBI, any emergency service and you will send them to someone's house to cause panic.”

911 operator, “Purdue police, can I help you?”
Lundeby: “You have until 9:35pm to disarm or find the bombs.”

He even set up a Pay-Per-View swatting channel. Lundeby says he would make between three and four thousand dollars by charging viewers to log on and listen to him and his team of swatters call in their hoaxes.

Lundeby said on a recording, "Do you have any idea what 1,400 bodies look like scattered into pieces because an explosive device blew up?"

Lundeby actually hacked into the surveillance cameras positioned at Florida State University's Rec Center and broadcasted the video for all his Pay-Per-View viewers to watch, laughing the whole time.

He said, “I thought it was funny and other people thought it was funny so that's why I did it.”

He served nearly two years in a federal juvenile detention center. He spoke to INSIDE EDITION’s Lisa Guerrero last fall.

Guerrero asked, "What’s the motive behind conducting these pranks?"

Lundeby answered “There could be some kind of rush or thrill out of it. There could be somebody that somebody doesn't like, you know and they decide this is how I’m going to get back at them and swat them.”

He says he's learned his lesson about "swatting" and will never do it again. But other swatters, like those who just sent cops to Justin Timberlake’s home, haven't gotten the message.