Jogger caught throwing homeless man's belongings in lake arrested

A man who was caught on camera destroying a homeless man’s possessions has been arrested for robbery in California.

Initially only known as “Jogger Joe,” he was identified as Henry William Sintay, 30, after he was filmed on kicking around, throwing in the rubbish, and then dumping a homeless man’s things into the city’s Merritt Lake. The property belonged to Greg "Jarew" Markson as he was later identified.

He is being held on $100,000 bail at the Santa Rita jail in Dublin, California according to inmate records.

The witness who filmed the incident, JJ Harris, posted it on Twitter and it has been viewed nearly 750,000 times.

In the video you can hear a bystander plead with Mr Sintay to stop destroying the lakeside encampment where Mr Markson had set up his camp.

Mr Harris also asked "What are you doing with this stuff, man?" and then Mr Sintay and the bystander entered into a heated exchange.

"I'm not taking any of it, he [the homeless man] can pick it up," Mr Sintay said, adding that he was cleaning up the area but never gave a reason why that meant trashing Mr Markson’s possessions.

Other bystanders joined in on the argument as well, CBS News reported.

The Oakland police were called but said they were unable to punish Mr Sintay because Mr Markson’s belongings were considered “debris” given that he is homeless.

Mr Sintay was once again filmed in the area at Lake Merritt the next day by a resident called Matt Nelson. Mr Sintay was apparently wading into the water and pulling things out of it.

In that video, also posted and gone viral on social media, Mr Sintay can be heard saying he was "trying to do the right (expletive) thing" by cleaning some of Mr Markson’s things from the lake.

But, he denied being the one to throw them in the lake the day before. Others joined Mr Nelson in asking Mr Sintay questions about what he was doing there and why, which is when Mr Sintay appeared to attempt to snatch the mobile from Mr Nelson.

They exchanged profanities and appeared to physically wrestle. The fight is not seen on camera, but the Facebook livestream was a series of shaky images.

Eventually everyone appears to run away from Mr Sintay and a friend of his. Mr Nelson wrote on Facebook that he was “dragged by their moving vehicle and hit a few times in the head, but I'm safe now. Still do not have my phone”.

“Please keep calling it and if Henry picks up, I'd like it back,” he said, regarding his phone.

Mr Sintay’s arrest appears to be for the alleged theft of Mr Nelson’s phone, not necessarily destroying Mr Markson’s encampment. The Oakland police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Community activists have stopped by to help Mr Markson replace some of this things and bring him essentials after seeing the two videos.

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