UK Metropolitan police had a bad day Friday, as their Twitter account got hacked by an unknown perpetrator who made a series of posts calling for the release of a rapper known as Digga D.
While some tweets only contained random letters or numbers, others were slightly more coherent.
“F*** The Police Free Da Gang!! #Chucklinghella,” one tweet read.
“We are the police… Cal and Dylan are gay btw,” read another, apparently referring to Netflix show Tidelands.
Interestingly, the tweets linked to a bogus police press release, which was written in surprisingly reserved language.
Titled “Free Digga D,” the fake press release said that the Met “aim to make London the safest global city. Be the best crime-fighters, by any measure; Earn the trust and confidence of every community; Take pride in the quality of our service; So people love, respect and are proud of London's Met,” according to the Mirror report.
Some commenters tried to reason with the hackers, warning that they could get caught.
Others commended the brazenness of the attack.
"Balls of steel hacking the feds,” one comment read.
Met police reacted approximately 15 minutes after the attack and began deleting the hackers’ tweets.
"We are aware that the @metpoliceuk has been subject to unauthorised access and our media team are working hard to delete the messages and ensure the security of the account,” a force spokesperson tweeted. "Please ignore any Tweets until we verify that it is back under official control."
Digga D, 18, whose real name is Rhys Herbert, was jailed after being caught with a five-member gang armed with machetes and baseball bats as they headed off to attack a rival gang in 2017. He was sentenced to one year in prison and a retaining order, Mirror report says.