An alleged staged crash in a small Arkansas community did not exactly unfold like a master plan.
According to the Crittenden County Sheriff’s Department, three people from West Helena were arrested after reporting a motor vehicle accident near Highways 38 and 147 in the Horseshoe Lake community.
Deputies said the people involved claimed they were injured and needed to go to the hospital. That might have been where the story ended if investigators had only their word to go on.
Instead, detectives checked a nearby SkyCop camera, and the sheriff’s department says the footage showed the crash was staged.
Deputies Say the Crash Wasn’t an Accident
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According to the sheriff’s department, the alleged crash involved a U-Haul and a Chevrolet Malibu. The driver of the U-Haul was identified as Carl Lee Boose, 59, of West Helena.
Deputies identified the driver of the Chevrolet Malibu as Felicia Larry, 44, of West Helena. A passenger in the Malibu was identified as Tyrone Ewing, 46, also of West Helena.
The department said all three were arrested after investigators reviewed the SkyCop footage. In one of the better lines from the release, the sheriff’s department wrote that, instead of riding to the hospital in an ambulance, the three “rode in a police car to the County Jail.”
The Investigation Reportedly Found More Than a Fake Crash
The charges did not stop with the alleged staged wreck.
According to the sheriff’s department, Boose was charged with felony filing a false police report and felony criminal mischief.
Larry was charged with felony criminal mischief, possession of drug paraphernalia, theft by receiving involving a firearm, simultaneous possession of drugs and a firearm, and possession of methamphetamine and fentanyl.
Ewing was charged with criminal mischief, filing a false police report, and theft by receiving involving a firearm.
The sheriff’s department said officers found a stolen gun in the car, along with narcotics and paraphernalia. All three were booked into the Crittenden County Detention Center.
Cameras Are Making These Schemes Harder To Pull Off
Authorities have not said whether the alleged crash was connected to an attempted insurance claim, so it is better not to get ahead of the charges here.
Still, the broader lesson is pretty obvious. It is much harder to tell investigators one version of a crash when a nearby camera recorded another.
Between SkyCop cameras, dashcams, business security systems, doorbell cameras, and regular traffic cameras, there are few places left where a staged crash can happen without someone or something watching.
In this case, deputies say the suspects claimed they needed to go to a hospital. Instead, the camera reportedly helped send the investigation in a very different direction.