10 Social Media Stunts That Led to Arrests or Worse

Competitors amongst social media influencers to realize subscribers is intense as a result of extra subscribers equals extra advertisers, which, in flip, equals a much bigger earnings. Partly because of this, those that function social media platforms typically carry out ill-advised, reckless, and harmful stunts. The ten social media stunts on this checklist led to arrests on varied fees and, in some circumstances, to important property harm, critical damage, and even loss of life.

Associated: Ten Horror Stories from the Depths of Social Media

10 Housebreaking, Theft of Providers, and Trespassing

For Jacob Pursifull, 20, of Prairieville, Louisiana, alligators have been an attraction that he merely couldn’t move up, though, Tampa police stated, he needed to soar “over a fence to unlawfully enter the park” with the intention to get to the reptiles. As soon as inside, he yelled at a close-by group of individuals earlier than leaving.

His actions and people of his confederates have been caught on surveillance videotape. Pursifull posted the video of his exploit on TikTok, which enabled police to determine him. He was arrested on fees of housebreaking, theft of providers, and trespassing.^[1]

9 Threats of Violence

Music spilled over into a possible combat when a social media duel between three Punjabi singers led them to comply with sq. off within the Purab Premium Residences in Chandigarh, India. The incident ended with the arrest of Harkirat Singh Mangat, aka Elly Mangat, as he tried to realize entry to the house advanced the place the opposite vocalists, the Randhawa brothers—Prince and Rami—lived. Amongst different issues, the brothers had objected to the vulgar lyrics Mangat typically sang.

Rami was additionally arrested on the identical cost as Mangat confronted: making threats in opposition to each other on social media. Prince later turned himself in on the Sohana police station. In line with the Instances of India, a senior police officer considered the singers’ actions as a publicity stunt supposed “to realize fame,” however the threats they’d made in opposition to each other have been too critical to disregard.

The three males have been processed underneath sections 294 (“Obscene acts and songs”), 504 (“Intentional insult with intent to impress [a] breach of the peace”), and 506 (“Punishment for prison intimidation”) of the Indian Penal Code and part 67 (“Punishment for publishing or transmitting obscene materials in digital type”) of the Data Expertise Act, 2000.^[2]

8 Shoplifting

In a report for Kalemba Information, Francis Nundwe’s TikTok shoplifting stunt was known as a quest for fame. The incident resulted in additional infamy than fame, nevertheless, after the influencer was arrested on fees of theft. In search of social media consideration and extra followers, Nundwe, 23, allegedly filmed himself appropriating merchandise from varied shops with out paying for the objects.

The Matero, Zambia, resident was arrested after consuming and ingesting in a Shoprite retailer and asserting that he had no intention of paying for the fare. He additionally filmed himself changing his personal slippers with a pair displayed at a PEP retailer, apparently additionally with out paying for them. He admitted that he knew that the shops have been geared up with surveillance cameras however described his actions as nothing greater than a stunt.^[3]

7 Aiming Weapons at a Daycare Heart

Bodybuilder and social media influencer Estrella Maria Pereira, 50, admitted that pointing rifles at a daycare middle was a poor choice, however she supplied a mitigating issue: her ignorance. She and her companion, Miguel A. Ruiz, 57, have been unaware of the existence of a daycare there. Their motive: “We thought it might be cool to take an image with a gun,” though, she added, that she “can be freaked out if she noticed any person doing the identical factor.” Nonetheless, she believed that the incident was getting blown out of proportion.

Apparently, the kids’s mother and father and the Miami-Dade Police disagreed; the previous noticed the couple’s actions as having been harmful, scary, and irresponsible, and the latter arrested Pereira and Ruiz, charging them with aggravated assault with a firearm and exhibiting a firearm close to a college property. In line with a information report, the primary detective who arrived on the scene discovered “Ruiz holding a loaded rifle in a ‘kneeling firing place’” as he aimed on the college’s door. The college additionally took the matter significantly, occurring lockdown to guard college students.^[4]

6 Faking a Kidnapping

If the day appears boring, or there’s a have to thrill social media followers, an influencer can at all times faux a kidnapping. That, apparently, was the thought that crossed the minds of “Goodnight Rooster” (Chen Neng Chuan), 31, and his companion in crime, Anow (Lu Tsu Hsien), 34, who have been arrested for live-streaming what seemed to be a kidnapping in progress. A Radio Free Asia web site article experiences that, in considered one of their two YouTube movies, which first appeared on February 12 and 13, 2016, Chen stated that he was crushed and imprisoned after breaking right into a rip-off compound.

Not surprisingly, the stunt backfired, resulting in the pranksters’ arrest on incitement fees. In line with the Sihanoukville provincial courtroom, the Taiwanese influencers entered “Cambodia in an try to supply faux movies on human trafficking, detention and torture, rape and human organs promoting.” Following the duo’s speedy conviction, the 2 Taiwanese influencers have been sentenced to 2 years in jail and fined 4 million riels ($1,000).^[5]

5 Leaping a Tesla over an Intersection

A dashing automotive gone airborne was practically invisible aside from its taillights shining in the dead of night. Seconds later, the sound of a crash occurred as onlookers cried out. A USA Right this moment video’s caption defined that the rented Tesla’s driver had jumped over a “steep [intersection] road in Los Angeles, whereas a crowd of spectators caught the stunt on video.” The Tesla crashed into two parked automobiles earlier than the driving force deserted the automotive and fled the scene.

From a unique angle, footage confirmed the automotive’s takeoff and flight, its touchdown on its entrance wheels and chassis, a few wild bounces, and erratic swerves earlier than an abrupt cease on the backside of the hill. The left entrance facet of the automotive confirmed harm, and the hood was up, having opened in the course of the wild trip. Police, the video states, handled the stunt “as a hit-and-run” incident and have been “following up with the one that rented the Tesla.”

A follow-up video recognized the driving force as a TikToker. The overwhelming majority of the information the police acquired in regards to the incident recognized the driving force as Dominykas Zeglaitis, whom the authorities thought of “an individual of curiosity.”^[6]

4 Popping a Wheelie

Mushtaq Ansari, a social activist, shared movies on Twitter (now X), exhibiting Pothole Warriors performing harmful stunts on the streets of Mumbai, India. One such stunt reveals two girls and a 3rd rider seated on a bike, none of them sporting helmets or different protecting gear. One lady sits on the car’s pillion, or rear seat; the opposite, on its gasoline tank, going through the operator, who’s sandwiched between his two passengers.

Whereas touring, the operator performs a wheelie, lifting the entrance finish of the motorbike in order that the bike rears backward because it continues to journey down the road. Visitors police cited Faiyyaz Ahmad Azeemullah Qadri, 24, a resident of Wadala, a neighborhood in Mumbai, with rash and negligent driving, endangering human life or the protection of others, and abetment (i.e., abetting, aiding, or encouraging one other to violate the regulation).^[7]

3 Launching Firecrackers

A Tamul man recognized as “Satan Rider” was arrested after popping a wheelie on his bike earlier than igniting firecrackers hooked up to the car. A video reveals him safe a semicircular array of the cylindrical explosives to the entrance of the bike earlier than mounting up and dashing down the road. Because the bike gathered velocity, he executed the wheelie and commenced firing off a collection of explosives whereas streaking down the pavement, his bike nonetheless upended on its rear wheel.

The blasts of the fireworks flashed streaks of yellow and orange flames upward into the evening sky and over the rider’s helmet, the hearth from the final salvo jetting into his helmet’s face protect and down his shirt. The daredevil was later arrested and accused underneath “sections 279 [‘Rash driving or riding on a public way’], 286 [‘Negligent conduct with respect to [an] explosive substance’] and 336 [‘Act endangering the life [sic] or private security of others] of the Indian Penal Code, amongst others.”^[8]

2 Placing Buckets over Buyers’ Heads

The stunt sounded innocent, if ill-advised: inserting buckets on the heads of strangers and filming their reactions. The prank turned out to be something however innocuous for Lana Clay-Monaghan, 30, the mom of dual sons and a most cancers survivor. When teenage TikTok followers plunked a bucket over her head whereas she was purchasing at a Tustin, California, Goal retailer, Clay-Monaghan stated, “Every little thing went quiet, darkish, and there [seemed to be] no air.” She had epilepsy, and the assault prevented her from acquiring enough air, inflicting her to faint, after which she was hospitalized, in line with a News10 ABC channel report. The incident affected her each bodily and psychologically, she stated.

Tustin Police, who reviewed the footage in an try to determine the culprits, believed the teenagers have been collaborating within the “stranger bucket problem” trending on TikTok. Removed from being a innocent stunt, this problem, the police division’s Lt. Ryan stated, constituted an assault and battery on one other particular person that may be investigated as such.

Clay-Monaghan filed a lawsuit in opposition to TikTok, Goal, BYTEDANCE, and quite a lot of people for negligence and, in some situations, different offenses. The actions of a number of of the plaintiffs allegedly precipitated the defendant to lose consciousness, fall, maintain a head damage, and expertise a seizure that required her to obtain emergency medical remedy for her accidents.

In partial help of the lawsuit’s allegations, the lawsuit factors out TikTok’s “engineered dependancy”; the shortage of the total improvement of adolescents’ brains “in areas associated to threat analysis, emotional regulation, and impulse management;” TikTok’s algorithms’ exploitation of “minor customers’ diminished decision-making capability, impulse management, and emotional maturity”; and the numerous harmful challenges that TikTok has featured. These embody encouraging customers to pour boiling sizzling water on another person, shoot random strangers with tiny water-absorbent polymer beads utilizing gel blaster weapons, and exit shifting automobiles to bop alongside them within the street.^[9]

1 Filming a Backflip

In comparison with among the different social media pranks which have landed influencers in sizzling water, filming a backflip doesn’t sound all that excessive, however this stunt proved critical, certainly, when its performer died following the damage he sustained. As KNTV 13 Las Vegas, an ABC affiliate, experiences, Keonte Jones, 28, arrange a livestream on June 20, 2024, to point out Larry Coner, 55, a homeless man, carry out a backflip for Jones’s social media viewers. Apparently, Jones supplied Coner $6 to do the aerial backward somersault.

The stunt’s painful finale occurred when Coner landed on his neck as Jones and onlookers watched, laughing. For ten minutes, Jones continued to snigger and movie, asking that nobody summon medical personnel. When assist did arrive, Coner was taken to College Medical Heart, having suffered “a extreme spinal damage,” from which he died on June 30. Charged with felony willful disregard for an individual’s security, Jones was arrested.^[10]

reality checked by
Darci Heikkinen