Teen arrested after video appears showing 'Dumbass' hurling road sign onto highway in Oakville, Ont.
A teen has been arrested after a video appeared online showing a young man throwing a road sign off a highway overpass onto a Toronto-area highway, police say.
In a news release Friday evening, Halton Regional Police said the accused, who cannot be identified under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, was arrested and charged with mischief under $5,000 and common nuisance. He has since been released from custody pending a court date.
The video appeared to show a young male hurling the sign off of the Winston Churchill Boulevard overpass on the Queen Elizabeth Way. Police say the incident was captured on the social media platform SnapChat on Wednesday at approximately 8 p.m.
Police said the sign was thrown onto the three eastbound lanes of the busy highway, but landed in a grassy area separating the merge lanes and right lane of traffic on the highway. It did not strike any moving vehicles.
In a short, three-second clip posted on Reddit, someone out of view of the camera proclaims "look at this f--king dumbass," before the person throws a large "right lane exits" sign over the railing onto the road below.
"The behaviour depicted in this video is extremely dangerous and criminal in nature," police said in a news release earlier Friday.
"Although no one was injured, this reckless criminal act was taken very seriously," Friday evening's release said, adding police received a "huge influx of information" after appealing to the public for information.
This is the second incident where a person tossed something onto a busy roadway in the Greater Toronto Area in recent months.
Marcella Zoia garnered widespread attention across the city after video surfaced of her throwing a chair from a downtown highrise balcony earlier this year. Her case is still moving through the courts.
