The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department opened a criminal investigation late Friday after The Game, a rapper, sent a tweet to followers offering an internship with him if they called the phone number he posted.
The reason for a criminal investigation: The phone number belongs to the sheriff’s Compton station, and authorities say the number of calls received overwhelmed the station’s phone lines and hindered officers’ ability to respond to emergency calls. (Kanye West tumbles on stage [VIDEO])
“This was beyond irresponsible,” said Sheriff’s Captain Mike Parker. “The deputies’ ability to answer the phones and dispatch personnel to help these people in danger was significantly impeded.”
The calls began at about 5:00 p.m., after The Game sent his initial tweet to more than a half-million Twitter followers. The station brought in extra deputies to help answer phones until Parker had had enough. He tweeted The Game himself two hours later, asking him to stop tweeting.
The calls eventually stopped flooding in, but not before the sheriff’s department decided to open a criminal investigation. “Each phone call made does open the possibility for an additional charge,” Parker told the Los Angeles Times.
The Times reached out to The Game for comment, but didn’t receive a response.
He did, however, seem to try to explain himself in a series of tweets early Saturday morning.
First, he tweeted that he’d been hacked: “@wackstar hacked my Twitter earlier….. Arrest him police… He is to blame. #TellinOnYouDemetrius.” He then sent a tweet to the Los Angeles Times’ Twitter handle, “it wasn’t me (shaggy voice),” a reference to a song by singer Shaggy with that title.
In his final tweet on the matter, The Game mocked the police department: “Yall can track a tweet down but cant solve murders ! Dat was an accident but maybe now yall can actually do yall job !!!! #iSpeak4ThePeople.”