Grand Theft Auto 5actor Ned Luke, who fans will know as the voice behind protagonist Michael De Santa, appears to have been swatted during a recent livestream, though no law enforcement was seen in the stream itself. Luke regularly streams himself playing through GTA 5 and GTA Online on his personal YouTube Channel, as one of his more recent streams had to be cut short due to a swatting attempt.
The clip of Luke realizing he’s been swatted was shared by Twitter user GTA 6 News, which shows Luke playing GTA Online and checking out some online leaderboards. Luke then answers a phone call, his facial expression drops, and he then stands up from his seat and explains to his viewers watching at the time that “now these assholes have swatted my house”.
Luke himself has responded to his fans on Twitter since the incident took place, not with a statement, but with an image of a guy shrugging his shoulders. It’s a pretty sarcastic and typical response from the man himself, but at least it lets everyone know that he’s safe and doesn’t appear to be majorly affected by the incident. Fans have also been expressing their well-wishes in the replies to Luke’s tweet, concerned for his safety and condoning the individual or group behind the swatting attempt.
If you’re unfamiliar with the term, swatting is when an anonymous individual makes a hoax call to the emergency services in an attempt to get armed police officers to show up at someone’s house. It’s usually done to large-scale streamers to intimidate or upset them during streams.
What makes the situation slightly worse is that Luke didn’t seem all that surprised by this event. His use of the phrase “now these assholes have swatted my house” suggest that Luke has been dealing with troublemakers for quite a while, which is surprising given how beloved he is in the GTA community and how much legal weight Rockstar has behind it.
In any case, hopefully the ones behind the call are punished for what they’ve done, and platforms such as YouTube and Twitch work with authorities more closely to ensure content creators and streamers like Luke aren’t constantly having to worry about bogus calls.
In other, much happier GTA news, Luke recently excited GTA fans by hinting thathis character Michael De Santa may return GTA 6. Responding to a fan desperate to see Michael return, Luke simply replies “it’s a mystery”, which feels like a pretty big hint Michael will be back once again in some capacity when GTA 6 finally drops.
