Couple Arrested for Allegedly Crashing Cars to Get YouTube Clicks

The internet has made some people go to desperate measures for attention. Some even go so far as to commit a crime for it. Case in point: the California Department of Insurance announced that a Southern California couple has been arrested after running a YouTube channel that had videos of them allegedly committing insurance fraud.

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Christopher and Kimberly Phelps of Yucaipa were arrested over the scam. According to authorities, the couple ran a YouTube channel under the username BLU3 GHO57. And because stuff like car crashes and road rage incidents are popular on the platform, the channel had 162 dash cam videos of incidents ranging from full-on collisions to road rage incidents.

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Somehow, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department became aware of the channel, and it tipped off the state’s department of insurance. An investigation into the videos showed that it was a cash grab for insurance money. Of the 162 videos on the channel, authorities found that 23 videos were linked to 17 insurance claims by Christopher. The road rage incidents were a bit worse, as 42 of those appeared to be intentional acts by him. Alarmingly, the couple’s child appeared to be in the vehicle in what’s described as “multiple incidents.”