Ohio Creep Broke Into Crashed Car to Film It, Ignored Dying Teen Inside
An Ohio creep who witnessed two teenagers get into a spectacular car wreck broke into the crashed vehicle to shoot graphic video to sell to local news outlets, all while ignoring the injured victims—one of whom later died.
Lorain Police arrested Paul Pelton this week on charges of vehicular trespassing—a misdemeanor—after he posted the footage on Facebook under an assumed name and apparently tried to sell it to “multiple TV stations.”
“We searched to try to find anything to charge him with,” Lorain Police Detective Buddy Sivert told Reuters. “It is not a crime to stick a camera where a kid is dying or try to sell it.”
Cops say Pelton began filming Monday morning after two 17-year-olds, Zachary Goodin and Cameron Friend, sped over a railroad crossing and lost control of their Honda, crashing into a house.
But instead of offering assistance to the badly injured teens, Pelton allegedly “opened a back door and leaned in to film the boys and then walked around to the front door as he continued recording.”
In fact, police say, not only did Pelton decline to help, he reportedly insulted the victims as one lay dying inside the car. Friend was later pronounced dead at an Ohio hospital.
In the video, the Lorain man referred to the boys trapped in the car as “idiots,” a police report said.
Pelton, who now claims he filmed the wreck “to educate other kids” is facing a maximum of 30 days in jail, a $250 fine and, one hopes, a lifetime of bad luck.
