New York has an interesting hoax case involving another YouTube-related crime video. In this case, Anton Dunn has been arrested for videos of himself proclaiming that he had poisoned millions of bottles of baby food –causing a panic. He said that he wanted to kill hispanic and black children. There was no evidence of poisoning, but they did have Dunn on videotape and he has now been charged with sending threats in interstate commerce and falsely claiming to have tampered with a consumer product.
Three videos were posted of Dunn, 42, who now faces ten years in prison. His biggest problem is not the ten years but the fact that his threats against black and hispanic children could give him an expected life expectancy of around a week in the cellblocks. Dunn himself is black.
Dunn shot the 10-minute video in what appeared a shower stall and identified himself as Trashman.
He sometimes wore a mask.
Insanity would seem a promising defense here, to say the least. The charge itself raises the question of when a YouTube video constitutes a threat. The threat was clear in this case. Dunn clearly wanted to start a panic. However, given the videos of people engaged in fantasy talk and acting, there could be some interesting challenges in future cases.
For the full story, click here.
For the arrest documents, click here.
““Stick a Fork in Yourself Because You’re Dunn: Man Arrested in Baby Food Poisoning Hoax”
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I suggest a small rubber covered spoon instead.
It’s probably just me, but I would think that a person’s threatening to poison large amounts of baby food would have to be some kind of felony offense. It IS a threat to cause physical harm, after all.
Last year, two high schools in my town had bomb threats on the same day, one of which was the school my son attended. I can’t remember now how the bombers (four teenagers) were caught, but they were charged with “threatening to bomb.” I believe that is a felony offense, but JT or someone, please correct me if I’m wrong on that point.
America usually goes to extremes so I think there are two possible options here:
1) Let the guy go as he didn’t threaten good Caucasian folks.
2) This man is obviously insane, so send him to Texas and execute him.
Did a panic ensue because of the You Tube threats? It is interesting that a Gerber employee noticed the You tube video and alerted authorities. Does that seem strange to anyone else that with the reach of the Internet and the popularity of You Tube that an employee of the food company would be the first to call the cops? And when does a mere threat on a video because actionable? The story made no mention that his threats were successful in causing a panic. There was no mention of Gerber reporting a loss of sales from the Trashman’s threats. Maybe I am just extra suspicious this morning, but some things don’t add up here. I realize that a threat like this should be checked into, but when does fiction and drama become a crime? Even the arrest documents don’t seem to allege anything except that Trashman made some nasty “threats”. I will be interested in hearing more about this case.