Written by Joshua Bennett.
It’s Friday, March 14, 2025, and a nasty trend’s boiling over—conservative influencers are getting swatted left and right. Fake 9-1-1 calls, armed cops banging on doors, the works. Breanna Morello, a journalist digging into this mess, dropped a Substack post that lays it bare: these aren’t one-offs; they’re piling up fast. Names like Benny Johnson, Joe Pags, Catturd—yeah, that Catturd—Gunther Eagleman, Chase Geiser, and Shawn Farash are in the crosshairs, with more staying quiet out of sheer dread.
The Swatting Hits—And the Pizza Twist
Morello’s got the receipts. Five of these six got hit with a weird prelude—unsolicited pizzas showing up from Papa John’s or Domino’s. Cash-on-delivery orders, no prepayment, just a confused driver at the door. Then, bam, the swatting call lands, and police swarm in. Catturd’s clocked his fourth round early Friday—fourth!—while Chase Geiser, over at Infowars, took two punches in 12 hours Wednesday. That’s not coincidence; that’s a playbook.
Here’s where it gets slick. Some of those pizza orders? Phone numbers trace to local cop shops. Spoofed, sure, but it’s a gut punch—makes you wonder who’s pulling strings. Picture this: you’re home, pizza guy knocks, you’re scratching your head, then sirens wail. Happened to Farash—Domino’s one minute, chaos the next. Morello’s calling it a pattern, and she’s not wrong. It’s low-rent but brutal, a jab before the haymaker.
This isn’t petty stuff. Swatting’s killed before—2017, Kansas, guy shot dead over a fake hostage call. These influencers, big on X or radio, lean hard into Trump’s orbit, and that’s the thread. Johnson’s in Florida, Eagleman’s Texas—geography’s no shield. Morello says six in two days, but whispers from others hint at double digits. Victims clamming up? That’s fear talking—nobody wants their address lit up again.
FBI Steps In—Patel Means Business
Kash Patel, FBI honcho, jumped on this Friday via social media. “We’re seeing this swatting spike against media folks,” he posted, all business. “My team’s on it—investigating, chasing leads, working with local badges to nail the punks doing this.” He’s not playing—called it “morally reprehensible,” a danger to cops and targets alike. Updates are coming, he says, and you can feel the heat in his words.
Eagleman, who’s dodged this before, was quick to holler back—“Thank you Kash! LETS GO!!!”—like a guy who’s sick of ducking. Patel’s framing it beyond politics: this is crime, pure and ugly. Federal weight matters here—swatting’s a felony, often interstate, and the FBI’s got the tools: wire fraud angles, call tracing, the lot. But speed’s the catch. Past cases crawled—remember that Kansas mess?—and Patel’s crew’s juggling plenty. Still, this ain’t lip service; it’s a line in the sand.
For regular folks, it’s relatable dread. Ever had a prank call that spooked you? Multiply that by guns-drawn chaos. Patel’s right—cops get burned too, rushing into fake shootouts. Local departments in, say, Tampa or Nashville, they’re stretched already—add swatting, and it’s a powder keg. FBI’s promising action, but the clock’s ticking—every uncaught swatter’s a loaded dice roll.
What’s Behind It—And the Bigger Picture
That pizza dodge? It’s not random. Morello’s onto something—COD deliveries are a taunt, a test run, maybe a way to confirm who’s home. Farash got hit twice; Geiser too. Numbers spoofed to police lines? That’s next-level gall, tech you can grab off sketchy apps for peanuts. I’ve seen this evolve—swatting started with gamers, went political by 2020. Now, 2025’s got conservative voices in the bullseye—Sortor’s family dodged a dozen armed cops Thursday, Pags faced it too.
Web chatter backs this up. A kid last year got nabbed for 375 fake calls—375!—and that’s one bust. This wave’s tighter, though—Trump fans, loud ones, getting hammered. Why? Payback, intimidation, pick your poison. The pizza’s psychological—rattles you before the real scare. Don’t eat it, Morello warns, and she’s smart—could be a setup for worse. Scale’s murky; unreported hits might dwarf the six we know. Victims hiding out only embolden the jerks behind it.
Bigger lens: swatting’s a plague now—congressmen, streamers, you name it. Hundreds of cases yearly, spiking when politics heat up. Here, it’s personal—Johnson’s a podcaster, Catturd’s an X firebrand, Geiser’s Infowars grit. They’re not quiet types, and someone’s mad enough to dial 9-1-1 with lies. Coordination’s the kicker—same MO, tight timeline. Random trolls don’t pull that off; this smells like a grudge with a plan.
Our Take
This swatting spree’s a gut shot to free speech, and it’s dark. Conservative influencers—love ‘em or not—are getting terrorized, and the pizza gimmick’s just salt in the wound. I’ve tracked this garbage from the fringes to now, and Patel’s move’s a lifeline—FBI’s got the muscle to crush it, but they’d better hustle. Six in two days, probably more? That’s not a prank wave; it’s a hit list. The spoofed cop numbers scream intent—someone’s playing for keeps.
Here’s my beef: silence from victims feeds this beast. Catturd’s on four, Geiser’s double-dipped—how many more before they crack? Patel’s dead-on—it’s not red or blue, it’s wrong, and cops shouldn’t be pawns in this crap. But if the feds dawdle—Kansas took years—this’ll metastasize. Swatters want fear; they’re getting it. Nail ‘em fast—trace the calls, bust the apps, lock ‘em up—or every loudmouth’s a target. That’s not a hunch; it’s history. This stops when the hammer drops, not a second sooner.
Swatted for a second time in 12 hours. Here’s the video.
Long live InfoWars. pic.twitter.com/H0nIt8NjcC
— Chase Geiser (@realchasegeiser) March 12, 2025
