An 81-year-old grandmother who became famous online for playing video games to pay for her grandson’s medical bills was targeted by a dangerous hoax at her home while live-streaming.
Sue Jacquot, known as “GrammaCrackers” on the internet, has built a following of more than 600,000 YouTube subscribers by creating Minecraft videos alongside her grandsons, Jack and Austin Self.
The family told local media that they recently began a 24-hour live-stream fundraiser to help cover Jack Self’s medical expenses.
“He’s had 200 chemo treatments in like a year and a half, and that’s a lot of expensive bills that the insurance company won’t touch,” Jacquot said.
The family said they had been streaming continuously for nearly 15 days when they received a call from police around 11 p.m. on Monday.
“We got a call that Jack shot his grandma and killed her, and that he was going to kill himself, and right then I was like, whoa,” Jack Self said. “It was kind of like a, like a punch to the stomach.”
Jack Self said the report was false. Someone had called the police with a fake story about a shooting to send officers to their home. This kind of trick is known as swatting.
The family said more than a dozen police officers in full tactical gear, including riot shields and rifles, surrounded their home and instructed everyone inside to come outside with their hands up.
Ring camera footage captured officers outside the home. The live-stream also showed officers entering Jacquot’s room and waking her up while she slept.
“They came in, and one person took one arm and the other the other, and they just sort of escorted me out, and they were apologizing. And there was a police lady, gorgeous, beautiful bag, she was so sweet, but I think she could have kicked butt, you know, if there’d been a problem,” Jacquot said.
When asked about her reaction to the situation, Jacquot laughed and said: “I had just thought, what had my grandkids done?”
The family said officers remained at the home for about three hours before determining the report was false.
“The knowledge that we know is that it came from a French accent, French accent, they’re not exactly sure where it was from,” Jack Self said.
The family questioned why someone would target Jacquot. Despite the scare, Jacquot said she had no plans to stop streaming.
“I’ve got to get up tomorrow, I can’t stay up and stew about this, so I took a Benadryl and went to bed, and that’s how I handle it,” she said.
The next day, she returned to streaming. “You think they’re not going to tell me what I can do. They’re not going to make me afraid to do that,” Jacquot said.
The family said viewers flooded the stream with supportive comments following the incident. “They’ve been so kind, and they’ve been concerned about how I was. How are you doing? How is this going on? We love you, we love you, we’re so sorry for this, and they’ve been so supportive,” Jacquot said.
The police department confirmed officers responded to the hoax call and said additional details about the ongoing investigation will be released in the coming days.
