Top 10 Times People Filmed Themselves Committing Crimes

According to their Instagram profile, Saucy & Honey are “Your fave YouTube couple.” The duo started uploading videos in 2020, but their most popular was released in February 2022. It sees the two hiding inside of a Target in Pennsylvania, and prowling around while it’s closed for the night a la the Wet Bandits in “Home Alone 2.” While it’s edited out of the video, the couple actually left the store around 3am through an emergency exit, triggering an alarm and alerting police, before returning at 8am. Employees also saw the two on surveillance footage the next morning. Police eventually caught the couple and charged them with third-degree criminal trespassing, which could result in a seven year prison sentence.

Calling himself Big Slick Low, a 20 year old man named Sean Vasquez took to Facebook to livestream himself shooting at police. He had been firing at passing cars in Covina, California, quickly drawing the attention of the authorities, who can be heard responding in the video. The SWAT team shouts at Vasquez to drop his gun, and he takes a couple of pot shots in response. He later ran to a nearby house and barricaded himself inside. Luckily, no one was hurt in the shooting and it ended without incident, as Vasquez surrendered to the SWAT force. He was sentenced to 30 years and 8 months in prison for the stunt.

An 18 year old Florida man named Raderius Collins uploaded a startling video to Facebook in May 2016. It shows three men, including Collins, inside of a car and bragging about a recent home robbery. They flash stacks of money at the camera and claim that they “got a safe.” The trio allegedly also stole jewelry valued at over $500,000. Perhaps unknowing the true value of the jewelry, they sold it to a store and received just under $4,000. Police used the Facebook video to link its subjects to the crime, and both Collins and his associate were promptly arrested.

Some Facebook users were met with a horrifying sight on January 1, 2017. 18 year old Ohio woman Shayla Rudolph had taped her two-year old son to a wall, claiming that she needed to get housework done and that her toddler would have gotten in the way. Rudolph had taped the child’s mouth shut and told him that she would get “more tape” if he didn’t behave. She also told the child that he would be fine because he could see the TV. After the authorities were notified, child services took the toddler into protective custody. Rudolph was arrested and charged with abduction.

On January 6, 2021, a mob attacked the United States Capitol Building, seeking to keep Donald Trump in power after he had lost the election to Joe Biden. The attack caused millions of dollars in damage and resulted in five deaths. Four police officers later took their lives. One of the rioters was Baked Alaska, real name Anthime Joseph "Tim" Gionet. Baked Alaska is a far right media personality with white supremacist and antisemitic beliefs. He live streamed the Capitol attack on the alternate site DLive. The FBI later used this footage in their investigation, helping to nail both Baked Alaska and the people he had interviewed. He was arrested and sentenced to 60 days in jail.

This hate crime shocked Chicago and indeed the country. On New Year’s Eve, 2016, a man with an intellectual disability met up with Jordan Hill, whom he saw as his friend. However, the man never came home, prompting his parents to file a missing persons report on January 2. They later received a call demanding $300 in ransom. That same day, Hill and three others live streamed themselves abusing and torturing their victim on Facebook, while screaming obscenities against white people. Fortunately, a police officer later spotted and rescued the victim outside. Hill and his accomplices were charged, with three receiving prison sentences, and a fourth let off with probation and 200 hours of community service.

White supremacist Payton Gendron live streamed his attack on Black shoppers for almost two minutes, before Twitch shut it down. At 2:30pm on May 14, 2022, Gendron opened fire at a Tops supermarket with a semi-automatic rifle. He was a far-right believer in the ‘Great Replacement’, a conspiracy theory started by French white nationalist Renaud Camus, which claims that non-whites are replacing whites in Western countries. Gendron used a head-mounted camera to broadcast the shooting. He killed 10 and wounded three in the shooting, leading to eleven consecutive life sentences.

The name Luka Magnotta is infamous in his native Canada. On May 25, 2012, users of Bestgore.com found a video showing the killing of international student Jun Lin in horribly graphic detail. The video quickly drew the attention of the Canadian police, as did the horrific aftermath when body parts were mailed to schools and political parties. The video was quickly tied to a man named Luka Magnotta, who became the target of an international manhunt. He was captured in Berlin on June 4 and extradited to Canada, where he received a life sentence.

Then Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern described this tragic terrorist attack as “one of New Zealand's darkest days”. On March 15, 2019, Australian white supremacist Brenton Tarrant targeted Muslim worshippers at two different mosques, killing 51 and injuring 40. Tarrant streamed the attack for 17 minutes on Facebook Live, and the video quickly spread throughout the internet. Some of the footage was even aired on mainstream news outlets, including Sky News, prompting fierce criticism from the New Zealand government. The attack resulted in the country’s first ever sentencing of life without parole, and a ban on semi-automatic weapons.

Ukrainian serial killers Viktor Sayenko and Igor Suprunyuk were nicknamed the “Dnepropetrovsk maniacs,” after the city in which the killings occurred. In June and July of 2007, the two men killed 21 people and filmed some of their crimes. One such video found its way onto the internet and quickly became the stuff of legend. It depicts the grotesque and horrific killing of 48 year old man Sergei Yatzenko. The attack lasts about four minutes and sees both Sayenko and Suprunyuk acting eerily calm. They smile at the camera and clinically discuss the killing, including the surprising resilience of Yatzenko. The two perpetrators were eventually caught and sentenced to life in prison.