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I won’t lie, I have a small obsession with YouTube Pranksters – I blame Roman Atwood – and the video above includes one of my passions – Cops. The video was taken by Shayne and he had the following to say about the experience:

My cousin and I set out to film a prank in our city, Hazleton Pa. The prank was to be people in masks washing blood off of a car, and carrying around a dummy in a body bag. I admit that the prank was not thought out well, and filmed in too public of an area.

The police arrived, forced another man out of his vehicle and searched it. They then spotted our vehicle in an adjacent lot where we were waiting to approach another person at the car wash. They saw the ketchup smeared on the hood, but still demanded a search of the trunk. They then, despite my pleas to not destroy my prop, demanded we open it, despite clearly not being a human being then they demanded my name, which I refused without being told what I did that was illegal. They said I was a subject of a police investigation and that I would be taken to the station if I did not comply. I refused again. They told me that my charge was “disorderly conduct”. I gave my information. The police admitted to doing “100mph on icy roads” to get there. Acted unprofessional towards me. And blatantly disregarded my first amendment rights. I have not included all of the police questioning in the video due to the upcoming charges. I will release the rest of the video when the hearing is over. Two local news programs have covered the story so far. One including the chief’s opinion on it. The only thing I ask if you post this, is that you have a link to my Youtube channel.

I follow Cop Block closely, and thanks to you, I made sure my camera was running. Thank you for all that you do.

-Shayne Balliet

Shayne and his Cousin might have picked a poor style of prank – bloody car and fake dead body are ‘crimes’ that actually bare a victim – so I can’t blame the cops for rushing to the scene. If fact, I’m surprised the police got to the scene of an ‘actual crime’ so fast, normally it takes the police alot longer. Once the officers realize this is merely a prank they become clearly agitated. Ticketing Shayne for the catch all of “disorderly conduct” which is obviously a vindictive action and in no way a step taken to protect anyone – as the police claim.

I’m glad Shayne was aware of the power of the camera and it seems that could be the one thing to save him from this ordeal. Hopefully he’ll keep those cameras rolling for the future updates of the court process and for any other future pranks against cops.