On August 25, a man named Chris Hampshire was driving in Georgetown, Texas, when he had an extremely disturbing encounter with a woman working as a park attendant in an area called Cedar Breaks Park when he accidentally took a wrong exit. He posted the footage on Facebook on September 11, where it went almost immediately viral, probably because the attendant is acting so completely over the top hysterical, all while Hampshire talks very calmly in response. Hampshire captioned it with:
This is what happens when you steer down the wrong exit at lake Georgetown. Corrected myself immediately when I saw the sign, backed up and was going out the right exit… this park attendant happened to be outside and told me she was calling the cops over that… I told her she cannot legally hold me here, not an officer nor did I do anything illegal… situation ensued, that’s when I started recording
He later edited to clarify that he didn’t wait for the police, because the park rangers couldn’t legally hold him. Hampshire was pulled over not long after by a number of cop cars responding to the park attendant’s call. Once they saw the video, they let him go. And you would, too, if you watched this:
In the video, the woman stands with her hand on Hampshire’s parked car while on the phone will police, screaming and faux-crying and alleging that Hampshire ran her over and is continuing to run her over. She also says, “You’re hurting me,” at one point, though the car is completely stationary, and yells for someone named Mike over and over. Eventually, the woman is joined by two guards in uniform who don’t seem that shaken by her behavior, so maybe they’ve seen it before.
According to Buzzfeed News, the unnamed woman has lost her job. A representative named Randy Cephus, the deputy of public affairs, told them that they’d seen the video and after review, decided it was “best to part ways” with their former employee. But they won’t say she was fired.
“She was not fired. We got to a mutual agreement not to renew her contract, which was coming up, and that it was best to part ways,” said Cephus. “It was not the way we conduct ourselves and we regret the incident occurred. We want everyone to come to our facilities to have a nice and safe recreational experience.”
He added: “We expect [our staff] to act in a professional manner. That was not in line with our core policies.”
No kidding.
I’d say, “Let this be a lesson about acting insane on camera,” but it doesn’t seem to be a lesson anyone has taken to heart yet. Don’t know why they’d start now.