TikToker facing charges after pranking workers at Chipotle, Pep Boys: police
A Phoenix area content creator is facing criminal charges after authorities say he went too far pranking multiple businesses over a four-month period.
Heston Cobb, 21, known on social media as Heston James, was arrested on July 23 and charged with one count of third degree burglary, two counts of criminal impersonation, five counts of disorderly conduct and five counts of criminal trespassing, the Tempe Police Department announced in a press release.
Police called the alleged crimes “serious viral pranks that disrupted several local businesses.”
What did the pranks entail?
Between March and July, Cobb and a group of other men targeted businesses in Tempe, about 11 miles southeast of Phoenix, police said in the press release.
The group went into stores such as Pep Boys, Jiffy Lube and Chipotle dressed as employees. Once inside, the men allegedly began disrupting businesses by entering employee-only areas. When they were asked to leave, they refused.
Cobb, later identified as the leader of the group, told the others to start working, police said. The videos were uploaded to Cobb’s social media pages. While his TikTok page has been deleted, he has an Instagram account with 1.2 million followers as of July 28, as well as a YouTube page with nearly 79,000 subscribers as of July 28.
“The videos garnered millions of views and potentially generated large amounts of money,” police said.
Cobb recognized in previous videos
In a compilation video titled "Top 5 Heston James moments," Cobb can be seen at a Target store pretending to be on the phone.
"Go ahead and uh, bring the guys in," he said as a security worker tried to get him out of the store.
In the next clip, a group of men dressed in red, as if they worked at Target, marched into the store, and Cobb directed them to "get to work."
"Take over the lanes,” Cobb said. “I need people at self-checkout."
Another clip in the compilation shows a store employee telling Cobb he recognizes him.
“You look a lot like a guy who goes around recording videos of himself screaming in stores,” the employee said to Cobb, referencing another type of video Cobb had previously posted.
In his other videos, he goes into stores yelling profanity.
One clip he shared on his Instagram page on July 4 showed a group pulling up to a mechanic's shop in a white van and rushing inside. As of July 28, the video has over 1 million likes.
'Diligent police work'
Police were able to connect the most recent retail pranks to each other once they began happening more often in Tempe, they said in their statement.
“Diligent police work connected 21-year-old Heston Cobb to the social media platforms as the leader of these pranks,” Tempe police added.
Cobb captioned multiple videos "Bro pulled up with his own army of workers." Once viewers got wind of his arrest, they've been piling on comments.
"Bro had a full page full of evidence," wrote one user on July 25.
Saleen Martin is a reporter on Paste BN's NOW team. She is from Norfolk, Virginia – the 757. Email her at sdmartin@usatoday.com.