back to article Trashman arrested for YouTube threats

A New York man has been arrested after posting videos on YouTube claiming to have poisoned thousands of jars of Gerber baby food. Wearing a balaclava and vest, 42-year-old Anton Dunn allegedly claimed to have "disciples" working within the company who had put cyanide and rat poison in baby food and formula. The first ten- …

COMMENTS

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  1. Gilbert Wham

    How stupid?

    Mind you, as a rule of thumb, anyone using a hotmail address knows absolutely bugger-all about computers, nevermind the complexities of communicating anonymously...

  2. Mike Flugennock
    Black Helicopters

    YouTube "threat"?

    Y'mean, this guy posted some threat on YouTube, and he was _arrested_? Cripes. That's hysterical. YouTube? Gimme a break.

    Besides, why do we need some lone k00k to poison our baby-food supply when there's a couple of companies in China already on the job?

  3. Andy Worth

    Re:How stupid?

    I use a hotmail address, purely to direct any spam or mailing lists to. In fact, it's exactly this sort of site (social networking type sites) that I'd use that address for, mainly because I never check it.

    Although granted in this case it does seem like the rule fits.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    You mean Dilbert LIED to us?

    I thought garbage men were meant to be unsung genuises!

  5. Peyton

    Yes, you can be arreseted for threatening to kill people

    It's more effective than waiting until after the fact... sheesh

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @ Mike

    "Y'mean, this guy posted some threat on YouTube, and he was _arrested_? Cripes."

    Uh... yes. For the same reason you would be arrested if you put an article in the local newspaper claiming you'd poisoned the local reservoir.

    Even if untrue, it's causing public disturbance, if not panic, plus costing the local economy money.

  7. Aaron Kempf
    Thumb Down

    re: Yes, you can be arreseted for threatening to kill people

    I know that you _CAN_ be arrested for threatening people.

    I just think that it is consistently overplayed.

    I got arrested for threatening someone on UseNet last summer.

    I think that it's the biggest scam ever.

    To think-- that some dude would take this fruitcake seriously-- is beyond belief

  8. Jesse
    Paris Hilton

    RE: I got arrested for threatening someone on UseNet last summer.

    You think that the guy wasn't and couldn't be taken serious because you weren't and couldn't be serious in your usenet post?

    Fruitcake is right.. in your mirror.

    Paris wouldn't understand either.

  9. Mike Flugennock
    Black Helicopters

    How can anything on YouTube...

    ...be a _threat_, f'crissake? We're talking about the home of cats falling off of tables, crappily-shot pitches for MLM and time-share schemes, corporate "viral marketing" pieces masquerading as home videos of unsigned bands.

    (Speaking of phony threats, whatever happened with those Aqua Teen Hunger Force guys?)

  10. Andy Bright

    RE: I got arrested for threatening someone on UseNet last summer.

    ROFLMAO. I literally have tears in my eyes. Outstanding conclusions my man, threatening someone via the internet is of course fully permissible. Just as in the past, sending threatening mail or threatening them in person was always treated as 'having a bit of a laugh'.

    I still can't get past "I got arrested for threatening someone on UseNet last summer" without cracking up.

    Look, try to understand. It doesn't matter what medium you use to issue threats, particularly those that might cause public hysteria, incited racism and where very likely to cause significant cost to the company involved. No matter how unlikely, they had to take the threat seriously, which means time and money wasted investigating it. That alone is sufficient to get you into a fair bit of trouble.

  11. GF
    Stop

    Death Threats are Serious, No Matter What Medium...

    Aaron Kempf, whether you do your threat face-to-face or via YouTube, death threats are serious and not to be taken lightly. I agree with the police to arrest Anton Dunn since he stated in clear text to poison in masses. If you ignore such threats, others would just continue to increase into a "crying wolf" syndrome and then when a real threat occurs, no one will listen. Let the police and the courts decide if this threat was real or not.

    An example was when a taxi driver threaten my sister of bodily harm, including killing her unborn (she was pregnant), because of a car accident. My mother was there at the time, and she took this threat seriously, to the point that she showed up with a police officer at the taxi driver's house (the police traced the car license plate). The taxi driver stated that "it was a joke" to the police officer. Really? May be it was a joke AFTER law enforcement showed up. Anton Dunn's case sounds similar...

    (BTW, the car accident was cited against the taxi driver...)

  12. Dave Jones

    There's a reason they say "assault and battery"

    Assault is when you threaten to harm another person. Battery is when you actually do it. It's very old law and nothing to do with free speech on the Internet. Just because people frequently get away with saying "I'm going to come over there and kick your head in" it doesn't mean that it's legal to do so. All the threatened person has to do is complain to the police.

  13. JoePritchard
    Black Helicopters

    About time....

    It really is about time the legal authorities took threats made to groups and individuals over the Internet more seriously - especially in the UK.

    It's assault, harassment, abuse - the sooner some of these anonymous gutless wonders get a copper knocking at their door and making them wet their pants, the better...

    A black helicopter, because they should be good for this sort of thing.

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