Liam O'Dell
May 25, 2023
New York Post/VideoElephant
MrBeast, the most subscribed-to individual on YouTube, has been arrested – sort of. The content creator, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson and has more than 154m subscribers on the platform, was taken into ‘custody’ by the North Carolina Police Department as part of a payback prank from another influencer.
Eric Decker, known online as Airrack, was duped last year when friend and creator Tyler Blanchard pretended he was leaving Airrack’s channel to go and work for Donaldson.
And so, naturally, Decker wanted to get even – by having police ‘arrest’ Donaldson following a meeting with Twitter owner Elon Musk at the social media company’s offices in New York.
Except, in a truly shocking turn of events, Musk reportedly cancelled the meeting, and when a chance text from Donaldson to Decker saw the influencer ask if he wanted to meet in North Carolina, Airrack managed to sign a contract with local police to prank him there instead.
“I mean, technically, I’m five days into chasing Jimmy down, which is where most people in this situation would just give up.
“But when Jimmy turned Tyler against me – tried to take my friend from me – I can’t live with myself if I don’t get revenge on this man,” Decker said.
Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter
With the help of deputies Brock and Bobby, Decker conspired to have the officers pull over Donaldson for having tinted windows, before realising a warrant is out for his arrest for “communicating threats”.
I ACTUALLY Got MrBeast Arrestedwww.youtube.com
However, as Donaldson was placed in handcuffs and the back of the police car, the YouTuber could be seen smiling throughout the entire interaction, at one point telling officers it is “so hard to believe this is real”.
He said: “Let me guess, one of my friends put you up to this.
“If they were, I don’t know how they’d get their hands on cop cars and… it’s a pretty elaborate prank, if it is.”
After being taken to jail, having mugshots taken and placed in a cell with no food or water available, Donaldson was eventually allowed a phone call which saw Decker reveal the whole thing was an elaborate prank.
Commenting on the ruse, MrBeast said: “I thought it was real, and then I was like, ‘this might be a prank’.
“I was like, ‘this is a lot of resources for a prank’, then I was like, ‘OK, wait, maybe this isn’t a prank.’”
Decker has since decided to sell T-shirts displaying MrBeast’s mugshot online, if anyone is desperate…
Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.
Top 100
The Conversation (0)