The Real Reason Why MrBeast Was Arrested

For months now, MrBeast has faced one scandal after another. Amidst all the negative media attention, you might have seen people sharing pictures of MrBeast's mugshot, and you should know that although it's very real, you might not be getting the whole story.

People have spent months with the shady side of MrBeast and his company being aired out, so it's no surprise that the picture is getting a new wave of attention. The YouTuber has faced allegations of faked videos, rigged giveaways, and reports of contestants being injured while filming his upcoming TV show. Some people may see the mugshot and immediately jump to the conclusion that it's connected to one of the ongoing controversies (and some people have even shared the screenshot and made false claims about its origins). As it turns out, MrBeast's mugshot was taken all the way back in 2018, but every once in a while it recirculates online.

When he was 19 years old, MrBeast was arrested for street racing. Though he was well-known among subscribers at the time, he wasn't quite to the level of worldwide renown that he enjoys today — which is why so few people seem to know about the arrest. It seems his recent scandals have simply led people to dig up evidence of a poor decision he made six years ago.

In a press release posted to Facebook in January 2018, the Tarboro Police Department explained that MrBeast had been caught driving at 122mph in a 70mph zone while racing another driver named Luis Guerrero Rijo. MrBeast was arrested and held on a $100,000 bond for reckless driving and racing. Rijo ended up being held on an even higher bond, because his passenger had an open container of alcohol in the car and multiple outstanding arrest warrants.

Some fans think that MrBeast's arrest might share a tenuous connection with his YouTube career, with some theorizing that he'd been driving the BMW i8 shown off in a now-deleted video from around that time. But while some fans have been super-sleuthing this situation, they've also been questioning how much it really matters. "I get the search for dirt on him but this really is not relevant or important for his public image," wrote one Redditor a few months back. "People who actually value this kind of thing need to chill and check their life priorities, and I don't even like Jimmy all that much." To counter that point, another user wrote, "This isn't irrelevant, this is something that the YouTube community doesn't know yet. Pretty surprising tbh." This arrest was public information, not something MrBeast was trying to hide, but some still think this piece of MrBeast's past can help them understand his more recent behavior.

As one of the biggest creators on YouTube, MrBeast has always gotten a ton of extra attention from the internet. That said, ever since we learned about the disturbing allegations against Ava Kris Tyson, MrBeast's longtime friend and collaborator, people have been scrutinizing him more intensely than ever. While former MrBeast employees and YouTubers like Rosanna Pansino have been digging into MrBeast's scandals, MrBeast himself hired third party investigators to look into his company back in July. 

A three-month investigation into allegations regarding my company has concluded. The lawfirm/investigators reviewed millions of documents/messages and conducted 39 interviews. I was asked to refrain from making public statements to enable a detailed and unbiased investigation.... pic.twitter.com/lcWb93r9D0

— MrBeast (@MrBeast) November 1, 2024

On Nov. 1, MrBeast revealed the results of that investigation. The firm that looked into his company concluded all the allegations of sexual misconduct and widespread harassment at the company were unfounded, but the investigators also wrote in their summary that, "Several isolated incidents of workplace harassment and misconduct were identified during the investigation." The investigators made multiple recommendations, like changing how MrBeast trains his employees and developing new company policies, but MrBeast hasn't yet publicly laid out what exact changes he plans to implement. If the resurfacing of this mugshot proves anything, it's that people are going to be holding MrBeast and his company under a microscope for quite some time.