As technology has advanced, so too have the boundaries of pranks. With entire television shows dedicated to practical jokes, it seems like anyone with a phone camera and a YouTube account can try to make themselves famous. In the never-ending search to provide the most riveting content, the line between a bit of clowning and breaking the law can become fuzzy. Unfortunately, some find out about the difference the hard way.
On May 1, 2025, a judge sentenced a Wisconsin man to 44 months in federal prison as part of a plea deal for his role in a week of "swatting" hoaxes in 2020. It's only through luck and cool heads that his antics didn't end up with someone getting seriously injured or killed.
That's a Lot of Work for Some Lulz
For many people, the boredom generated by the COVID-19 lockdown was difficult to deal with. While some found relief through hobbies or reading, others branched out into new worlds perhaps best left unexplored.
Kya Christian Nelson and a couple of conspirators found themselves in possession of stolen Yahoo email accounts, complete with passwords. Their belief that most people were too lazy to use different passwords for different online accounts was rewarded when they could use the Yahoo passwords to hack into Ring accounts. Ring doorbells feature a camera and a speaker, allowing owners to see who's at their front door via a phone or computer.
Having already broken several laws, Nelson and his friends took it one step further. They called the 911 emergency lines for the regions where their hacked accounts were and reported fictional situations that warranted a significant police response. Known as "swatting" due to the heavily armed police specialty squads that often responded to the call, the so-called pranks brought tense police to the homes and businesses of innocent and unwitting victims.
For the week of November 7 through November 13 in 2020, Nelson and company engaged in a campaign of bogus emergencies designed to cause maximum chaos. When law enforcement arrived, Nelson and crew would livestream their arrival through the Ring's camera.
In one instance, Nelson called the police department in a southern California town and pretended to be a child in a house where her parents were drunk and shooting off guns. The hapless residents of the house were cleared at gunpoint before the hoax was discovered.
The hoaxers often mocked and taunted the police through the Ring speaker, boasting that they'd never get caught. That prediction didn't work out too well for them.
A co-conspirator named James Thomas McCarty posed as a husband in a Florida town who claimed to have just shot and killed his wife, was surrounded by explosives, and was holding a hostage. After posting the police response on social media, he proudly took credit. In 2024, an Arizona judge sentenced him to seven years in federal prison.
You Have a Collect Call From an Inmate at a Federal Prison
Perhaps proving he was a creature of habit, Nelson was serving a state sentence for calling in a hoax bomb threat in Kentucky when the FBI caught up with him. He pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and two counts of unauthorized access to a protected computer to obtain information in January 2025.
Citing an abusive childhood, drug addiction, and a seventh-grade education, Nelson's public defenders requested a 42-month sentence. The prosecution felt 48 months was an adequate punishment. U.S. District Judge John A. Kronstadt settled in the middle at 44 months to run concurrently with Nelson's Kentucky sentence.
In their sentencing positioning paper, Nelson's attorneys noted that he's in a drug rehabilitation program, plans to get his high-school equivalency diploma, and wants to start a career in the technology field. If he puts as much effort into his new life as he did setting up his over-the-top pranking scheme, he might have a chance.
Related Resources
- LOL or SOL? When a Prank Goes Too Far (FindLaw's Legally Weird)
- Victim of "Swatting?" Here's What To Do (FindLaw's Law and Daily Life)
- Do Laws Need Updating To Stop "Swatting" Crimes? (FindLaw's Practice of Law)
