Jailed Man's YouTube Video Reaches One Million "Self-Hits" in Two Months

(Photo of Paul Bremis inside Police Cruiser)

A man in prison posts a YouTube video - and it gets a million hits.  Most of them his.

 

Yes, believe it or not a man in a Chicago prison uploaded a video of himself watching a video of himself and it went viral - but not in the way you'd think.

 

Paul Bremis, who is serving a six-month sentence for a traffic violation in which he not only failed to yield to merging traffic but also did not have a valid license, decided he should make the most of his incarceration, stated,  "I figured I'm in jail, I have a lot of time on my hands, why not do something fun?"

 

The video which Bremis, 24, uploaded to YouTube, shows himself being pulled over by police and subsequently led away.  But, Bremis decided to give the video a bit of spin by changing the dialogue and then showing himself watching the video ranting and raving that everything he said on the police dashcam was altered.

 

Confused yet?  Hold on, there's more.

 

Bremis then set out to get the video to go viral but all his attempts at directing traffic to it (no pun intended) via Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter failed to yield (again no pun intended) the desired hits.

 

"I thought it was a funny video.  I see a lot of stuff on Facebook and other social media sites that really suck and they go viral.  I figured if mine goes viral, maybe can get a bunch of sympathetic stupid people giving me money and I'd be able to buy a new car or something." Bremis said yesterday.  "Seems like people will give other people money over the dumbest things they do wrong, and I figured I might as well jump at my chance.  Hell, for all I know this might be the only time in my life I'll ever get arrested."

 

But, Bremis' plan backfired, when, after a week the video only had 12 hits...10 of them his own. 

 

"That's when I got an idea." Bremis said.  "I figured if I can keep clicking on the video, I can keep getting hits registered and then when it gets enough hits, it will go viral and I'll end up on 'Good Morning America' where the big money is.  I wasn't going anywhere all day and night anyway, so I got nothing to lose."

 

After two months of constant clicking his video finally reached he one million mark.  "I thought it was going to take a lot longer." Bremis stated, "I'm no math whiz, but I thought I wouldn't be able to pull it off.  They always told us things in school like it would take you 2000 years to count all the interest a million dollars makes, you know, if you started counting it right now.  And, as a kid, you believe that stuff.  But this totally proves them wrong.  I mean, here it is, two months later and I have over a million hits, most of them mine."

 

And the Chicago City Jail collaborates those figures.  "I wouldn't have believed it myself." Chief Warden Anthony Bruglia stated.  "Bremis is right about the math they teach you in school.  It has to be wrong.  I never would have guessed he could click that many times just sitting here in jail.  It kinda gives everyone else here hope in a way, I think.  You know, that they can achieve something no one ever imagined."

 

As far as that money for a new car?  Donations to Bremis' PayPal account are already totaling in excess of $54,000. 

 

What Would You Have Done?

So, I'm on Facebook tonite...and coupled with the usual silliness and celebrity games/antics (yes, I am now a "friend" of people like Justin Bateman, Paul Rudd, James Franco [altho he did "unfriend" me], Bruce Willis and George Clooney) I ran across a most disturbing post this evening.

A person, let's just call her "Sandy Chatfield", had posted up something which a friend of mine (whom I never talk to - but, you know, everyone's a friend on Facebook) had commented to - which caught my attention. My friend commented "Please someone, go over to her house. Make sure she is ok."

This, naturally, caught my eye as it was scrolling by - and I decided to "click" on what transpired for her to say such a thing. Face it, we've all heard of people killing themselves online...and/or reaching out online for some type of intervention.

I took this as a sign from God...perhaps God wants me to intervene somehow - otherwise I probably wouldn't have seen it at the exact second it was scrolling past - but now I have...and I can't turn a blind eye to it. If this woman shows up dead tomorrow and the list of comments from people such as "I tried to call her and she's not answering...does anyone know her address?" goes nowhere and I'm somehow a cog that gets the gears rolling to stop this...well, I'm going to do what I can to make sure that happens.

With me still?

Anyway, I am not allowed to comment on her Facebook page because I'm not her "friend". So, either I sit and watch as time goes by and everyone isn't taking the action they should and this lady possibly dies...or I dive right in and get involved and say "at least I tried".

I decided to go with the "at least I tried" route. I won't have someone's death on my conscience...even IF I don't know that person.

I private message'd a few of the responders to her initial post...and for the record, no one has messaged me back..even tho it's been a few hours.

Now, bear in mind I'm sitting at home doing homely duties like making dinner and looking forward to a nice glass of wine...while this "plea for help" comes ticking across my otherwise mundane and stupid Facebook page.

Her message read as follows:

"Bye my friends!!! I am done with games etc,,,, about done with everything in life. So tired of trying so hard to get nowhere. It is time for a really long nap!....A very long one!! Love you my friends and angels on your pillows"

This is followed by a couple posts by her friends and then the following exchanges by her:

"so tired of everything honey!"

"Don't think I will wake up!"

Then absolute "radio" silence for an hour or so (and about 100 posts later) while her friends frantically try to call her, scurry around trying to find an address to go with a cell phone number, call the police to no avail, and plead with her to answer, when...finally, this woman comes back online and chortles, "Hey!!!! not trying to kill myself!!! feel like it but It is not my nature!!! Why is everyone thinking this>>>" and "What did I say that makes you think I would end y life???"

Her friends then try to justify their concerns while she is in total "huh...I don't get it" mode.

Then she proceeds to cuss out the person who sent the police around to her door as, according to her, they came by to make sure she was okay. This specific post of hers is now gone as she deleted it -- so I can't quote it verbatim...but it had the words "...to the person who called the police, **** YOU!!" -- or along those same general "grateful" lines.

All I can say is...if she were my friend and played this game...she wouldn't be my friend now. Talk about someone who is appreciative that someone cares, huh? And not just one person cared - but a whole slew of them. Hell, I'd be dead now waiting for Bruce Willis to respond back.

So, I'm wondering now if this was just a silly Facebook hoax she was playing...or if it was real...and if the players in the whole episode are real or if they were just part of some stupid larger scheme to see if someone would take it all seriously. I'm not going to waste any more of my time on someone who "cries wolf" on Facebook to illicit a response.

I wasted upwards of an hour on this woman trying to save her life. I was one step away from calling the Las Vegas police department on more than one occasion in that hour. I Googled, I found an address, I mailed that address to several of her "friends" who posted there, I stopped short of contacting a child she had listed as a family member to see if they could call to make sure she was alive. She basically put me through hell for an hour. Me...someone who will never know her...someone who cared enough to try to make a difference...for her and those around her who might actually care and love her.

I know the odds of this woman ever reading this blog is pretty much nil, but if, somehow, she does...I want to leave her with this thought: If this wasn't a sick game...choose your words much more carefully next time, and if it was...remember those choice words you deleted? I've got a couple for you, "...you, too".

(This was written last nite...but not posted until today.)