After blowing up the internet with those sweet white Vans, Damn Daniel’s creator has now become the victim of one of the internet’s worst “pranks.”


ABC 7 is reporting that Riverside, CA police got a prank call on Tuesday which claimed that the teen who filmed “Damn Daniel,” a popular internet meme, had shot his mother with an AK-47. In response, the police descended on the teenager’s home...only to find out it was all fake. The culprit had used a voice modulator to fool the police into thinking an emergency was unfolding, when in actuality nothing was happening.

Given the video’s popularity—it’s gotten hundreds of thousands of retweets on Twitter, and everyone on the internet seems to be talking about it—this outcome probably isn’t a surprise. Once you get big enough on the internet, swatting has practically become a (dangerous) rite of passage. Celebrities, congresswomen, and randos on the internet alike have all fallen prey to swatting, which is awful when you consider that, at best, this “joke” wastes everyone’s time, and at worst, someone actually gets hurt by SWAT teams who are just trying to do their jobs.


“We believe and the family believes that since their video went viral, it’s somehow connected,” said Riverside police lieutenant Kevin Townsend. “Ever since their video has gone out there, they’ve received a number of what they call strange phone calls and emails, and a lot of strange things happening so tonight was just another incident for their family.”

Damn, Daniel. Hopefully they won’t be back at it again with those S.W.A.T. vans.