Ashton Kutcher’s home targeted for ‘swatting’ prank

Ashton Kutcher is the latest famous name to be associated with a “swatting” — a malicious prank in which a seemingly serious distress call to police turns out to be a false alarm with a spoofed phone number, aimed at luring a SWAT team to swarm a particular location.

Police hurried to Kutcher’s Lake Hollywood home late Wednesday morning after a woman called police — more on that “call” later — and claimed to be hiding in a closet because there was an armed man inside the home, L.A. Now reported. The actor was not home at the time.

Upon arriving, authorities found no woman hiding and no armed man in the home, though they did detain some workers who were at the property.

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“Safe an sound at two and a half men,” Kutcher tweeted about three hours after police were summoned. After the call came in, the actor had sent his assistant to the house to make sure everything was OK, police said.

Also, what was being referred to as a “call” was not a 911 call but actually a teletype message, the type of communication that a deaf person would use, a police spokesman said Wednesday at a news conference.

The source of the prank was being investigated.

In early August, Miley Cyrus’ home was the target of a similar false call, that time with a report of an armed kidnapper on the premises.

Cyrus also was not home at the time police arrived.

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