Five minutes of fame; months of pain
‘The draw of fame – even of the slightly sketchy Internet variety – can be strong.
The promise of a payoff – in this case, hopes of a boatload of hits for a YouTube video – can lead rational people to make questionable decisions, such as, say, setting your backyard on fire.
That’s what happened when two 18-year-old Moon Township residents soaked the backyard of one of them – along with his shoes and socks – with gasoline and set it aflame early Saturday.
Moon police said Kory Brinza of 108 Bertley Ridge Drive and Joshua Morrow of 264 Moon-Clinton Road hatched a plan around 4 a.m. Saturday to set the fire around Brinza, while Morrow filmed the event on Brinza’s new cell phone. They then planned to upload the video to YouTube.com, an Internet site that hosts millions of homemade clips of every variety.
That’s what was supposed to happen; what actually occurred, Brinza said, was this: Once Brinza soaked much of his yard with gasoline, Morrow lit a match and a fire that engulfed much of the yard – not to mention Brinza’s lower legs – roared to life.’
