IMPERIAL BEACH, Calif. (KGTV) — A vandalism case against an 18-year-old Imperial Beach man who made headlines as a child after discovering a way into his father’s Xbox Live account has been dismissed.
Kristoffer von Hassel was arrested in September on suspicion of drawing hate symbols and antisemitic graffiti with a permanent black marker, including during two incidents at the home of Bryan and Sandy Brillhart.
Von Hassel denied having anything to do with the vandalism.
“Do you feel vindicated?” ABC 10News reporter Michael Chen asked him three days after the case was dismissed.
“Yes, I do,” von Hassel said, describing his reaction as one of “relief and victory.”
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I first met von Hassel in 2014, when the then-5-year-old discovered a way to get into his father’s Xbox Live account by entering spaces into a password field and hitting enter.
His family reported the issue to Microsoft, which developed a fix and acknowledged Kristoffer on its website. The discovery drew international attention, with one publication dubbing him the “world’s youngest hacker.”
More than 12 years later, von Hassel was back in the headlines for a very different reason.
Von Hassel said he couldn’t sleep and was riding his e-bike to a nearby 7-Eleven in Imperial Beach early one morning in September when sheriff’s deputies arrested him on suspicion of vandalism and a hate crime.
Investigators said surveillance video helped them identify a suspect. Von Hassel was arrested around 3 a.m. in an alley near the vandalism.
He was later arraigned on a single misdemeanor vandalism charge.
Von Hassel’s attorneys petitioned Friday to have his arrest thrown out, arguing there was a lack of probable cause and that his Fourth Amendment rights had been violated.
The challenge was granted. Prosecutors said a subsequent motion to dismiss the vandalism charge was also granted “over our objection.”
When I asked von Hassel directly whether he had anything to do with the vandalism, he replied, “No, of course not.”
Von Hassel said investigators showed him surveillance video while he was in an interrogation room. He described the person in the footage as wearing a black mask, black hoodie and black pants and argued that the video did not clearly identify who the person was.
ABC 10News reached out to the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office for comment and was referred to the District Attorney’s Office.
When asked about the possibility of charges being refiled, prosecutors said the case remains open and under investigation.
Von Hassel said he has lived a relatively normal life since the attention surrounding his childhood discovery. He recently graduated from high school and said he plans to attend community college, with an eye toward a career in software or as an electrician.
He is now considering filing a civil lawsuit following his arrest.
“My legal rights were violated,” von Hassel said, expressing concern that the arrest could affect future job searches because "my name is now associated with a crime I did not commit.”
ABC 10News also reached out to the victims in the vandalism case. They said their priority is finding the person responsible and that they are glad there has not been additional tagging.
This article was generated with the assistance of artificial intelligence and was reviewed and edited using information from the original ABC 10News broadcast script.
