Guilty of SWATing, Prisoner Recalls Early Days

For Matthew Weigman, his blindness was apparently his downfall. In a long article in the latest issue of Rolling Stone magazine, Weigman recounts his early childhood fascination with the nation’s telephone systems, and how he used phone chat rooms to mask his insecurities, and eventually to prove his worth by making false reports of emergencies to public safety comm centers across the country. Weigman just started serving 11 years in federal prison for his part in mis-using the telephone networks, intimidating a telephone company witness and fraud. His lack of sight made his hearing more acute, Weigman says, allowing him to hear TouchTones, overhear voices and accents, and to recall the tiniest detail with ease. But his focus on a telephone lifestyle also led him to darker traits, including demanding phone sex with those he harassed, and then sending police to their homes when they refused. Read Weignman’s version of his life here.