A video of an angry man yelling at a restaurant staffer at Blue Mountain Village got picked up and slathered all over the internet by a US-based social media influencer, which led police to identify and charge the man.
According to the Collingwood and The Blue Mountain Ontario Provincial Police, the dispute happened outside a Blue Mountain Village restaurant on Sept. 15 over an unpaid bill.
A video posted by TizzyEnt (Michael McWhorter) of part of the dispute came with the content creator's encouragement to identify the people in the video. McWhorter is a social media influencer and filmmaker with more than half a million followers on Instagram and more than 600,000 followers on X.com.
The video appears to show a staff member telling a man to pay a bill; the man is seen yelling and threatening the staff member. The man says he will knock the staff member out and uses threatening body language while swearing at the staff member.
Local police confirmed on Sept. 23 the footage captured of the dispute and the social media posts helped identify the people involved.
"The investigation revealed that the unpaid bill was settled in full shortly after the incident," states a news release from police.
The patron, a 38-year-old from Brampton (whose identity was not provided by police), has been charged with:
- Assault
- Uttering threats to cause bodily harm
The accused is scheduled to appear before the Ontario Court of Justice in Owen Sound on Oct. 24, 2024.
Members of the Collingwood and The Blue Mountains OPP are committed to public safety, delivering proactive and innovative policing in partnership with our communities.
