After a false phone tip about a crime drew 30 police officers to an innocent man's home in southern New Jersey in October, state legislator Paul Moriarty stated his intent to pass a law that specifically punished the "sick and disturbing" act of "swatting." That bill hasn't yet been passed, but its loudest proponent got another reason to get to work when he himself became the victim of a swatting attempt.

According to a report by NJ.com, Moriarty received a phone call at his home on Saturday from a police officer asking if everything was okay; the assemblyman was then informed that someone had anonymously called in a report of a shooting at the home. He was then told to describe his clothing and step outside, where he saw a crowd of officers armed with "helmets, flak jackets and rifles."

"The minute I walked out the door—I was still on the phone with the dispatch person—I said, 'I think I've just been swatted,'" Moriarty told NJ.com.

Moriarty had called for greater penalties to so-called "swatters" during the October incident, and again when a Jersey game store almost fell victim to a particularly dangerous-sounding swatting in March. He pointed out that current penalties for such false police reports only go so far as probation, and his bill amps the penalties up with both incarceration and a fine of up to $150,000. "If you are calling out the SWAT team, and they show up, guns blazing, at some innocent person's home, and they end up having to break the door down, I think you should go to jail for that," Moriarty told NJ.com earlier this month. "You're putting lots of people in danger."

He renewed that call to action in a Friday statement made to multiple New Jersey outlets, which came just one day before he fell victim.

"I'm thinking someone read about the bill and some sick, evil person thought it would be funny to send the police to my house on one of these false reports," Moriarty told NJ.com. "If this is a practical joke, it's not funny because someone is going to get seriously hurt or perhaps killed in one of these engagements that can go very, very wrong."