An 8chan forum thread (now removed) outlining a plan to "swat" artist and GamerGate critic Grace Lynn appeared to succeed, sparking 20 police officers to respond to a Portland, Oregon, home on Friday night. However, there was a tiny problem—the swatting attack targeted an old address for Lynn.

According to The Oregonian, authorities showed up at the Portland home around 12am Saturday after receiving reports about an armed man with hostages inside. Officers were developing a plan to contact the residents when they received notice the entire situation may be a hoax. However, police ultimately wanted to (and did) ensure the residents were safe.

"It's not going to result in the prank playing out the way the prankster wanted it to," Portland Police Sgt. Pete Simpson told the paper. "But it does create significant risk to the public and significant risk to officers responding. And the prankster can face state and federal charges."

Portland police have encountered one or two other "swatting" attempts according to the report, and investigators are working to ID the caller and make a possible arrest in Lynn's case. Improper use of an Emergency Reporting System is a crime in the state.

Lynn admits to being a former GamerGate participant, but she said she left the movement when GamerGate's anti-transgender bias surfaced (Lynn herself identifies as a transgender woman). Speaking with the New York Daily News, Lynn said she is "afraid for my safety," and she receives daily threats and harassment from GamerGate supporters. "If I can ever afford a lawyer, I plan on filing restraining orders against the GamerGate supporters who harass me," she told the paper.

A swatting attack involves someone reporting a false escalated situation to local authorities in an attempt to solicit a strong and potentially scary response (see video from when a Halo executive was targeted last fall). Often, the contact with authorities is done anonymously through things like a TTY, or a text telephone, designed to help those who are deaf, hard of hearing, or speech-impaired communicate through phone calls. In recent years, targets of such schemes have run the gamut, from Justin Bieber to security reporter Brian Krebs.

The original forum post, from 8chan user Swat Anon, offered a sort of target lottery for either a dox or swat attack: