A social media prank built around pretending to have a job has ended with Heston Cobb admitting to crimes stemming from the stunt.
Cobb, who posts online as Heston James, pleaded guilty in an Arizona court to criminal impersonation after a series of videos showed him and groups of men entering Tempe businesses dressed like employees and taking over parts of their workplaces.
The plea comes more than a year after Tempe Police arrested Cobb at his home. Police said the videos had collected millions of views as the group moved through auto shops, a restaurant and other businesses between March and July 2025.
What looked online like workers suddenly appearing for an unsolicited shift was considerably less amusing to the people already on the clock. Police said the group entered employee-only areas and sometimes refused to leave after workers told them to get out.
Clocked In
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Police identified five Tempe businesses connected to the videos: Pep Boys, Hyland Auto Repair, Big Brand Tire & Service, Jiffy Lube and Chipotle.
The premise varied by location, but the basic move was similar. Cobb would appear dressed like he belonged there and other men would follow.
At Hyland Auto Repair, Arizona’s Family reported that Cobb showed up dressed as a mechanic and told an employee he was from corporate. A van then arrived carrying more men, who grabbed tools and went underneath customers’ vehicles as workers demanded that they leave.
The Chipotle episode pushed the same idea into a restaurant. Cobb appeared in a restaurant shirt and announced that he was bringing in a crew to “clean house.” Men dressed like employees then entered and began handling cleaning supplies while the actual workers tried to remove them.
During a 911 call obtained by Arizona’s Family, a Chipotle employee described people posing as workers who would not leave and were touching items inside the restaurant.
Tempe Police said detectives began connecting the cases after several incidents occurred around the beginning of July.
The Paper Trail
When Cobb was arrested July 23, 2025, police announced a 13-count booking package: one count of third-degree burglary, two counts of criminal impersonation, five counts of disorderly conduct and five counts of criminal trespass.
The case that eventually reached a plea had changed.
Dexerto reported, citing Maricopa County court records, that Cobb pleaded guilty Aug. 28 to three criminal impersonation counts. One was entered as charged and two were reduced charges.
The outlet reported that 10 other counts were dismissed as part of the pleas: three burglary counts, five disorderly conduct counts and two criminal trespass counts.
That later count breakdown differs from the charges Tempe Police listed immediately after Cobb’s arrest, which included one burglary count and five criminal trespass counts. The available reporting does not explain when or why the charging mix changed.
The Associated Press separately confirmed that Cobb entered a guilty plea Aug. 28 in the criminal impersonation case.
One Date Left
The plea leaves Cobb with another court appearance ahead.
The Maricopa County docket cited by Dexerto lists sentencing for Oct. 1, 2026.
It is a much different endpoint from the videos that first brought the case to police attention. Tempe Police said those clips had accumulated millions of views and potentially generated substantial revenue.
The department’s original release described Cobb as the group’s leader and said he instructed the other men to begin “working” after entering the businesses.
For Cobb, the performance eventually continued somewhere the group could not pretend to be employees: court.