YouTuber Arrested, Charged With Causing Car Crashes for Views and Payouts

A Southern California couple are facing felony charges for allegedly causing car crashes that they recorded for their YouTube channel and collected insurance money from it.
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Dash camera crash videos have become something of a national pastime, for better or worse. But for one couple facing felony charges of insurance fraud and child endangerment in Southern California, it had allegedly become a way to spread destruction and cash insurance checks. All it took was the watchful eye of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department and the dash camera videos on the couple’s YouTube channel.

According to Carscoops, Christopher Phelps and wife Kimberly Phelps were behind YouTube channel BLU3 GHO57, which contained 162 videos of road rage incidents, attempted collisions, and vehicle collisions that allegedly involved the couple. The channel has since been taken down, but videos from the channel remain on other popular compilations of dash camera videos on YouTube.

The investigation by the San Bernardino County Sheriff led investigators to 42 videos that featured road rage incidents and attempted collisions that appeared to be intentional acts. 23 collisions were linked to 17 insurance claims filed by Christopher Phelps.  The incidents on the channel date back to July 2020, and Phelps’ child can be seen in the vehicle during multiple incidents. 

In multiple instances, Christopher Phelps allegedly played the victim while setting up other motorists to have a collision with him. Jeremy Perales, a person involved in an accident that was posted to the channel, took evasive action against one of these alleged setups and drove over the yellow line to attempt to avoid the collision. Perales claims that Phelps knows how to set up the collision to get a favorable outcome from his insurance company and that Phelps accused Perales of the crime that he is now being charged with.

Both Christopher and Kimberly Phelps face felony charges on insurance fraud and child endangerment. Christopher Phelps is also charged with assault with a deadly weapon, and is being held on a $500,000 bail while his wife is held on $170,000. Both have pleaded not guilty.

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