Simon Cowell is the latest victim of a “swatting” prank, according to reports and authorities.

Someone called Beverly Hills cops and said someone “had been tied up with duct tape and needed assistance” at the local home of the X Factor creator and judge, according to a police statement.

Seems to us that authorities had their eyebrows raised from the get go:

The caller couldn't get things straight, according to the Beverly Hills Police Department:

The address of the residence provided by the caller was determined not to be a Beverly Hills address.

The story, however, changed, and the caller said the action was …

… at “Simon Cowell's” house, which is in the City of Beverly Hills. Officers responded to the Cowell residence and contacted Mr. Cowell and confirmed that the call was a false report of an emergency.

TMZ says the man with the strange haircut was indeed home at the time.

In any case, get your swatting straight, people. Not only are you wasting officers' time, but you're making us yawn.

It all happened Sunday about 12:56 p.m., according to cops, though they only reported the event late last night.

Other recent swatees — the prank is to get cops to swarm a celeb's house, Punk'd-style — include Ashton Kutcher, the punk himself, Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus.

See also:

*SWATting, a Deadly Political Game.

[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]

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