The Game’s Twitter Prank Overwhelms Sheriff’s Office
A sheriff’s office in Compton was flooded with hundreds of phone calls for three hours on Friday evening as a result of a Twitter prank by the Los Angeles rapper The Game. In a tweet posted at 5:23 p.m. PT, the emcee encourages his over 580,000 followers to call a phone number to inquire about an internship. The number was in fact for the official help line of the Compton’s sheriff’s station.
Though many of the callers hung up upon hearing the standard station greeting “Compton sheriff’s station, may I help you?,” others asked about the music internship anyway. Headquarters bureau Captain Mike Parker, a Twitter user, was able to figure out the source of the calls and sent a message to the Game to take down the tweet. The rapper complied just before midnight, but refused to apologize and blamed the prank on a friend. He later posted a tweet mocking the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, “Yall can track a tweet down but cant solve murders ! Dat was an accident but maybe now yall can actually do yall job.”
Photos: Random Notes
The Game may face criminal charges for delaying or obstructing police officers on their duties. During the deluge of calls, deputies answered legitimate calls regarding a missing person, two robberies, a stolen vehicle and an incident of domestic violence.