What hath the internet wrought? That’s what victims of a prank outside of a Bradenton, Florida movie theater may have been wondering. An ersatz YouTube star was arrested after allegedly giving wedgies to a bunch of strangers outside of the theater. It was a stunt he was purportedly filming for his YouTube channel.
Eighteen-year-old Charles Ross was charged with a misdemeanor after a male victim, 20, reported to police that Ross had grabbed him “by the back of his pants and pulled them up hard,” according to a Manatee County Sheriff’s Office report. As reported in the Bradenton Herald, a victim told deputies that Ross pulled up his pants — giving him a wedgie — and then asked the victim if he wanted to hit him, all while the camera was rolling. According to the incident report, other alleged victims of Ross’s schoolyard-style bullying “were too embarrassed to want to pursue charges.”
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The Sheriff’s Office noted that Ross appeared to be “filming the crime with a camera,” which is likely true, as Ross features what he calls “pranks” — and what the Sheriff’s Office calls “creat[ing] situations in order to harass and annoy people” — on his YouTube channel. Ross has built a small name for himself on the video-sharing site; in the past his stunts have included kissing strangers, fake trust falls with strangers and asking strangers to scratch his back. The wedgie spree, apparently, was one step over the line. After the incident, Ross was arrested and briefly jailed before he was able to meet his $750 bail. A court date has been set for February.